Acral mutilation and analgesia (AMA) is reported in 13 French spaniels in Canada. This newly recognized disorder shares striking similarities in clinical features and biopsy findings to the other acral mutilation syndromes or hereditary sensory neuropathies reported in German short-haired pointer dogs, English pointer dogs and English springer spaniels. Clinical signs are first noted between 3.5 and 12 months of age. Affected dogs lick, bite and severely self-mutilate their distal extremities resulting in ulcers with secondary bacterial infection. Auto-amputation of claws, digits and footpads occurs in severe cases. Single or multiple feet can be affected. Affected dogs walked on their severely mutilated feet without evidence of pain, lameness, or ataxia. The majority of the dogs were euthanized within days to months of diagnosis.

Intertrigo is a skin fold dermatitis often requiring recurrent treatment with topical antiseptics or antibiotics, which can select antimicrobial resistance. To minimize this risk, we tested the effectiveness of medical-grade Manuka honey at treating intertrigo as compared to a placebo hydrogel. We additionally characterized the culturable microbial flora of intertrigo and recorded any adverse effect with either treatment. During this randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded, adaptive group-sequential trial, the owners washed the affected sites on their dog with water, dried and applied a thin film of either the honey or the placebo product once daily for 21 days. Cytological and lesional composite scores, owner-assessed pruritus, and microbial cultures were assessed prior to treatment and on Day-22. The fixed effects of time, treatment, and animal-related variables on the pruritus and on each composite score, accounting for random dog effect, were estimated separately with generalized linear mixed models for repeated count outcomes (α = 0.05). The null hypothesis of equal treatment effects was rejected at the first interim analysis. The placebo (n = 16 dogs) outperformed the medical honey (n = 13 dogs) at improving both the cytological score (Treatment×Time = -0.35±0.17; P = 0.04) and clinical score (Treatment×Time = -0.28±0.13; P = 0.04). A microbial burden score higher than 4 increased the severity of the cytological score (dichotomous score: 0.29±0.11; P = 0.01), which in turn increased the severity of the clinical score and pruritus score. For every unit increase in cytological score, the linear predictor of clinical score increased by 0.042±0.019 (P = 0.03), and the one of pruritus score increased by 0.12±0.05 (P = 0.01). However, medical honey outperformed the placebo at alleviating the dog’s owner-assessed pruritus after statistically controlling for masking effects (Time = -0.94±0.24; P = 0.002; and Treatment×Time = 0.80±0.36; P = 0.04). Unilateral tests of the least-square mean estimates revealed that honey only significantly improved the pruritus (Hommel-adjusted P = 0.003), while the placebo only improved the cytological and clinical scores (Hommel-adjusted P = 0.01 and 0.002, respectively). Taken together, these results question the value of Manuka honey at treating nasal intertrigo in dogs.

During the last few years, reports have appeared claiming that lufenuron diminished or even cured dermatophyte infections in cats and dogs. As these observations have a rather anecdotal character leading to some ambiguity in the literature, it was decided to test lufenuron in a generally accepted animal model for dermatomycotic infection. The test was carried out in guinea pigs artificially infected with Microsporum canis on scarified dorsal skin and orally treated with lufenuron (Programä). The efficacy of up to five doses of 80 mg/kg was assessed 7 and 14 days after the start of treatment. All animals failed to show any improvement in skin lesions as compared to the vehicle-only treated animals. Clinical symptoms taken into account were scaling, crust formation, erythema, and exudation. Neither the number of treatments (one or five) nor the dose range (40 or 80 mg/ kg) made any difference. Itraconazole, tested earlier under identical circumstances, resulted in a clear and consistent improvement at day 7 of the infection at a dose of 15 mg/kg, given either in one dose or spread over several days. The absence of antimycotic activity of lufenuron in this established animal model constitutes a significant element in the discussion on the antifungal potency of lufenuron and supports the fact that there is, as yet, no evidence that benzoylphenyl urea derivative compounds have an effect on chitin synthesis in fungi. Funding: J&J Pharmaceutical Research and Development, Janssen Animal Health. FC-2The role of endogenous protein inhibitors of dermatophyte proteolytic activity M. DROBNIČ -KOSˇOROK, D. MIHELČ IČ , B. PREMROV, I. ZDOVC, P. ZRIMSˇEK and T. POPOVIČ Veterinary Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Josef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia Microsporum canis and Trichophyton mentagrophytes produce different proteolytic enzymes necessary for their growth and progression. In general, enzymatic activity can be tightly regulated by various mechanisms, of which endogenous inhibitors are of great importance. Considering the fact that an imbalance between proteases and their inhibitors has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several diseases, the aim of our work was to investigate the production and role of protease inhibitors produced by fungi. Both dermatophytes were demonstrated to produce protein as well as low-molecular-weight inhibitors of different proteases. Protein inhibitors were isolated from culture medium and cytosolic extracts obtained from mechanically disintegrated mycelia by affinity chromatography on CM-Sepharose 4B or by HPLC separation in the case of low-molecular-weight inhibitors. The size of the purified proteins was analysed by SDS-PAGE, and their immunogenic properties by immunoblotting. Their inhibitory properties were determined by inhibition of trypsin, papain, and cathepsins B and L. Temperature and pH stability of the low-molecularweight inhibitors was established as well. From our data, it is evident that both protein and low-molecular-weight inhibitors of cysteine ...