ACQUIRED-IMMUNITY IN EXPERIMENTAL FELINE MICROSPORUM-CANIS INFECTION

Seven adult cats were inoculated cutaneously at a shaved site with Mic rosporum canis; five (group A) had spontaneously recovered from a prev ious M canis infection, and two (group B) were dermatophyte-naive. Bot h of the dermatophyte-naive cats developed typical clinical disease, t he lesions reaching maximal size four to five weeks after exposure, an d resolving by week 13. Only one of the group A cats developed clinica l disease; the lesions were more inflammatory in nature and of shorter duration and had resolved by day 25 after exposure. Blood samples col lected from the seven cats before and four weeks after exposure were a ssessed for M canis-specific cellular (by lymphocyte proliferation ass ays) and humoral (by IgG and IgM ELISA) immune responses. After four w eeks the group A cats had significantly (P<0.05) increased cellular an d IgG-humoral immune responses, and the group B cats also had increase d cellular, and Ige and IgM responses but the increases were not signi ficant.