Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Treatment failure of cat sporotrichosis in Brazil
By do Prado, Carolina Melchior et al.·Published in Emerging infectious diseases·2025·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Sporothrix brasiliensis Treatment Failure without Initial Elevated Itraconazole MICs in Felids at Border of Brazil.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of cats in Brazil with skin infections caused by the fungus Sporothrix brasiliensis were studied to understand why treatment with the antifungal itraconazole often fails. Many of these cats had a severe form of the disease, which can be deadly. Researchers found that the effectiveness of itraconazole was not linked to the fungus having higher resistance levels, as the resistance was not significant enough to explain the treatment failures. This suggests that other factors may contribute to the poor response to treatment in these cases.
People also search for: cat skin infection treatment · why is my cat not responding to antifungal · Sporothrix brasiliensis in cats
Abstract
Cat-transmitted sporotrichosis caused by Sporothrix brasiliensis is an emerging zoonosis in Latin America. Because treatment of feline sporotrichosis is often not effective, we sought to determine whether treatment failure results from S. brasiliensis strains that have existing elevated MICs for itraconazole, the primary treatment for this disease. During 2021-2023 at the triple border region of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, 108 S. brasiliensis strains were isolated from felines before antifungal treatment. The main clinical manifestation was cutaneous disseminated sporotrichosis (61%), which was the only form resulting in sporotrichosis-induced deaths (61%). We conducted antifungal susceptibility testing for 9 antifungal compounds, evaluating for both mycelial and yeast phases. MIC levels were low for most antifungal agents but were higher in the mycelial phase than in the yeast phase, especially for voriconazole and isavuconazole. We conclude that the varying clinical manifestations of sporotrichosis and large differences in mortality rates were not caused by elevated itraconazole MICs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40867021/