Sarcoptic Mange of Fox Origin in Multiple Farm Animals and Scabies in Humans, Switzerland, 2018

Pisano, Simone R. R.; Ryser-Degiorgis, Marie-Pierre; Rossi, Luca; Peano, Andrea; Keckeis, Karin; Roosje, Petra

doi:10.3201/eid2506.181891

Cited by 12 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(13 reference statements)

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“…Transmission occurs through skin-to-skin contact with a person who is currently infested with the scabies mite. Sarcoptes scabiei infects over 104 mammal species; it is thought that domestic animals may be a source of scabies, leading to cross-species transmission 18 , 19 . The fertilised female mite burrows into the uninfected individual and lives for 10–14 days in the epidermis of the skin, laying up to 180 eggs in the stratum corneum 16 , 20 .…”

Section: Mite Biologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent advances in understanding and treating scabies

Welch¹,

Romani²,

Whitfeld³

2021

Fac Rev

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Scabies is an infestation of the skin caused by the mite Sarcoptes scabiei. In 2017, scabies was recognised by the World Health Organisation as a disease of public importance and was consequently added to the list of neglected tropical diseases. An estimated 200 million people currently have scabies worldwide. Scabies is endemic in many developing countries, with the highest prevalence being in hot, humid climates such as the Pacific and Latin American regions. Scabies causes a host immune response which is intensely itchy. Scratching of the lesions can lead to secondary bacterial infections of the skin, such as impetigo, most commonly caused by Streptococcus pyogenes or Staphylococcus aureus . This can have fatal consequences, such as septicaemia, glomerulonephritis, and rheumatic heart disease. Advances over the past 5 years indicate that mass drug administration is an effective strategy to treat scabies. This review will outline advances in the mite biology, epidemiological understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of scabies.

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Section: Mite Biologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent advances in understanding and treating scabies

Welch¹,

Romani²,

Whitfeld³

2021

Fac Rev

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“…This is particularly true for ZS of horse origin, which collapsed in Europe in parallel with the contraction of the use of horses as military and non-military work animals. Sarcoptic mange has turned into a rare condition in equines throughout developed countries, and recent cases reported in Europe have instead been traced back to spillover contact with mangy foxes [34,45,46,62].…”

Section: Overview Of Zoonotic Scabies Episodesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wildlife does not appear to be a common source of ZS, as only nine species in different parts of the globe have been found to be responsible for mite transmission to humans (Figure 2), although this might be another bias due to the infrequent skin-to-skin contacts between humans and wild animals. Red foxes were associated with human scabies in five cases [8,[33][34][35][36], in both urban and rural contexts. Worthy of note is an outbreak involving four people on a farm where a moribund fox with generalized lesions had sought shelter [34].…”

Section: Overview Of Zoonotic Scabies Episodesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Red foxes were associated with human scabies in five cases [8,[33][34][35][36], in both urban and rural contexts. Worthy of note is an outbreak involving four people on a farm where a moribund fox with generalized lesions had sought shelter [34]. In this episode, people became infested through direct contact with different species of domestic animals (pigs, goats, dogs, horses, oxen) that, in turn, had previous contact with the scabietic fox.…”

Section: Overview Of Zoonotic Scabies Episodesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Zoonotic Episodes of Scabies: A Global Overview

et al. 2022

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Zoonotic scabies (ZS), also referred to as “pseudoscabies”, is considered a self-limiting disease with a short incubation period and transient clinical skin signs. It is commonly thought that Sarcoptes scabiei mites from animals are unable to successfully reproduce and persist on human skin; however, several ZS case reports have mentioned the persistence of symptoms and occasionally mites for weeks. The aim of this review was to collect and organize the sparse literature explicitly referring to S. scabiei zoonotic transmission, focusing on the source of the outbreak, the circumstances leading to the transmission of the parasite, the diagnosis including the identification of the Sarcoptes “strain” involved, and the applied treatments. A total of 46 articles, one conference abstract and a book were collected describing ZS cases associated with twenty animal hosts in five continents. Dogs were by far the most common source among pet owners, while diverse livestock and wildlife contributed to the caseload as an occupational disease. Genetic epidemiological studies of ZS outbreaks are still limited in number, but tools are available to fill this knowledge gap in the near future. Further research is also needed to understand the apparent heterogeneity in the morbidity, disease severity and timing of the response to treatment among people infected with different animal-derived strains.

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“…(Smith and Wilkinson 2003;Singer and Smith 2012), canine roundworm Toxocara canis, the tapeworm Echinococcus mutlilocularis (Brochier et al 2007) and the burrowing mite Sarcoptes scabiei. Variants of the latter cause sarcoptic mange in non-human mammals and scabies in humans (Davidson et al 2008;Plumer et al 2014;Pisano et al 2019). Of the pathogens listed, S. scabiei and A. vasorum are endemic in Britain, and rabies and E. multilocularis have the potential to (re)emerge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial distribution of sarcoptic mange (Sarcoptes scabiei) in urban foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Great Britain as determined by citizen science

et al. 2020

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Urban areas may support high densities of wild carnivores, and pathogens can strongly influence carnivore populations. Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are hosts of sarcoptic mange (Sarcoptes scabiei), which infects numerous species, and transmission can be density dependent. In Great Britain, urban red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) have recently increased in population density and undergone range expansions. Here we investigate corresponding changes in urban fox mange prevalence. We predicted a higher prevalence closer to historic epi/enzootics and lower prevalence where urban features reduce fox density and movements, i.e. large areas of public green space, and fragmented habitat, as measured by road length and urban perimeter shape complexity. We visually assessed mange symptoms from georeferenced images of urban foxes submitted online by the public, thus surveying private land on a national scale. We measured the proportion of foxes apparently showing mange and used SATSCAN to identify spatial clusters of high infection risk. Landscape features were extracted from urban layers in GIS to determine associations. Although mange was widespread, we identified a single cluster of high prevalence (37.1%) in Northwest and Central England, which exceeded double mean prevalence overall (15.1%) and mirrors the northward expansion of urban fox distribution. Prevalence was positively correlated with perimeter shape complexity and negatively correlated with distance to the nearest city with mange, although the latter association was weak. Our findings show that citizen science can effectively monitor diseases with highly visible symptoms and suggest that fox movements are influential in explaining spatial patterns of prevalence.

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Sarcoptic Mange of Fox Origin in Multiple Farm Animals and Scabies in Humans, Switzerland, 2018

Cited by 12 publications

References 10 publications

Recent advances in understanding and treating scabies

Recent advances in understanding and treating scabies

Zoonotic Episodes of Scabies: A Global Overview

Spatial distribution of sarcoptic mange (Sarcoptes scabiei) in urban foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Great Britain as determined by citizen science

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