A synthetic review of notoedres species mites and mange

Abstract

Notoedric mange, caused by obligately parasitic sarcoptiform Notoedres mites, is associated with potentially fatal dermatitis with secondary systemic disease in small mammals, felids and procyonids among others, as well as an occasional zoonosis. We describe clinical spectra in non-chiropteran hosts, review risk factors and summarize ecological and epidemiological studies. The genus is disproportionately represented on rodents. Disease in felids and procyonids ranges from very mild to death. Knowledge of the geographical distribution of the mites is highly inadequate, with focal hot spots known for Notoedres cati in domestic cats and bobcats. Predisposing genetic and immunological factors are not known, except that co-infection with other parasites and anticoagulant rodenticide toxicoses may contribute to severe disease. Treatment of individual animals is typically successful with macrocytic lactones such as selamectin, but herd or wildlife population treatment has not been undertaken. Transmission requires close contact and typically is within a host species. Notoedric mange can kill half all individuals in a population and regulate host population below non-diseased density for decades, consistent with frequency-dependent transmission or spillover from other hosts. Epidemics are increasingly identified in various hosts, suggesting global change in suitable environmental conditions or increased reporting bias.

Invasive pathogen drives host population collapse: Effects of a travelling wave of sarcoptic mange on bare‐nosed wombats

“…Research testing management strategies of S. scabiei in wombat populations is currently underway (Martin, Burridge, Polkinghorne, Fraser, & Carver, in preparation). Owing to the global distribution of this pathogen, these findings may also apply to other impacted wildlife species, and more broadly to other similarly transmitted pathogens (Cunningham et al., ; Foley et al., ).…”

The cascading pathogenic consequences ofSarcoptes scabieiinfection that manifest in host disease

“…We find that wombats cannot compensate for the increased metabolic requirement through altering foraging behaviours (indeed they spend more time inactive), and subsequently deplete their fat stores, with altered fatty acid composition in adipose tissues, but not necessarily other tissues. These findings improve our understanding of the process by which S. scabiei infection results in host physiological changes, progressive disease phenotypes and mortality; and, may also contribute to other globally important chronic inflammatory parasitic infections of animals, such as notoedric mange [ 54 ].…”

Companion rats (Rattus norvegicus) with cutaneous lesions: a retrospective study of 470 cases at two university veterinary teaching hospitals (1985–2018)

“…Selamectin was the most commonly used ectoparasiticide in this study and was consistently effective in the treatment of both mites and lice. Notoedres muris was the most common parasite identified; the Notoedres genus is most prevalent among rodents; contagion to other species, including humans, has been reported …”