Experimental infection of chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica parva) with Sarcoptes scabiei derived from naturally infected goats.

Two chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica parva) out of a group of three were experimentally infected with Sarcoptes scabiei derived from a naturally infected domestic goat. One of the chamois presented the first clinical manifestations (papules and desquamation) at 7 days post-infection, after 22 days crusts and alopecia appeared and after 41 days pruritus. The other chamois presented desquamation after 15 days and papules after 21 days and crusts and alopecia after 31 days. All these clinical manifestations continued to spread and when the animals were treated at 84 days post-infection, pruritus, papules and crusts were first to disappear, there being no evidence of their presence at 99 days post-infection, when the second treatment dose was applied. The desquamation and alopecia disappeared at 114 days post-infection, by which stage both animals were considered to have been cured. The results of the skin scraping was negative in both chamois until 54 days post-infection and it became negative again after 84 days, when the first treatment dose was applied. Biopsies showed different levels of hyperkeratosis and a marked epidermic hyperplasia with formation of small crusts. Superficial epidermis presented marked vasodilatation and also infiltrated inflammation. None of the biopsies carried out showed the presence of parasites. The non-infected chamois, which was kept in the same compound as the other two, did not present any clinical manifestations compatible with infection by S. scabiei throughout the entire period of the experiment.