[Epizootiologic studies of trichophytosis in cattle]

Investigations were carried out during the years 1964 to 1973. The investigated material included 34 134 heads of cattle in 227 industrial farms, and 80 per cent of them were young animals, from 5 days to 22 months old. The aim of the study was to observe the intensity of skin mycosis in cattle in the Poznań Province, to determine the pathogenic factor causing the disease in individual years, and to search for a possible relation between the occurrence of this disease and the presence of ectoparasites. The clinical observations on cattle were continued for 9 years, 1932 samples of scrapings were taken from skin with mycotic changes and investigated from the points of view of mycology and parasitology. Basing on the observations and analyses performed, it was found that trichophytosis occurred during the whole year, but was more intensive in autumn and winter and in the wet period of summer. Young animals were more frequently affected with this disease. In individual groups of animals, in 10.9 to 21.1% of cases, trichophytosis occurred together with invasion of ectoparasites (lice, mallophagans, itch mites).