OBJECTIVES

The use of lufenuron to treat dermatophytosis appears to be increasing. A survey was conducted in Italy with veterinarians who use lufenuron to treat fungal infections. The objective was to evaluate use patterns, and success and efficacy of treatment based on the experience of clinicians.

MATERIALS

323 veterinarians were asked about their results with the use the lufenuron against fungal infections. Diagnosis was based on clinical observations, hair examination, Wood's lamp and fungal cultures, either as single criteria or in various combinations of criteria. 290 (89.8%) of the veterinarians reported efficacy based on clinical observations and 33 (10.2%) based on fungal cultures.

RESULTS

8963 cats and 5038 dogs, as well as at least 613 rabbits, 22 hamsters, 12 ferrets 6 Guinea pigs, 2 chinchillas and 1 gerbil were treated with lufenuron against dermatophytosis.

Efficacy was perceived as excellent by 62.7% of the veterinarians responding, as good by 26.3%, as sufficient by 5.0% and as insufficient by 6.0%. The time to recovery was rated as extremely fast, very fast, fast and not fast by 41.1%, 49.3%, 8.9% and 0.7% respectively. 96.1% of the veterinarians considered the treatment as extremely easy or very easy to administer. No adverse effects were noted and safety was reported as very good or excellent by 98.7% and no interactions with other treatments were indicated by 97.3% of the veterinarians who had used lufenuron to treat dermatophytosis.

The majority of veterinarians (72.7%) used 60mg/kg lufenuron for the treatments, 23.3% used a higher dose (up to 120mg/kg) whereas 4.0% used less than 60mg/kg. Most veterinarians (57.9%) repeated the treatment after 15 to 20 days, 19.2 treated only once and the remaining 22.9% treated more than twice.

74.9% of the respondents achieved clinical efficacy greater than 80% (of which 60.7% reported 100% efficacy. Time to clinical cure was normally 10-30 days (41.5%), shorter times to cure were reported by 13%, longer times to cure by 45.5%.

In the cases where recovery was evaluated mycologically the mean time to recovery (negative cultures) was 34.7 (s.d. 16.4) days with a minimum of 12 days and a maximum of 90 days.

CONCLUSION

The survey showed that lufenuron is successfully used for the treatment of dermatophytosis cats and dogs as well as a number of other species. The treatment is rated as easy to apply, efficacious and well tolerated.