[Experimental trichophytosis in calves caused by cultures of Trichophyton verrucosum and Trichophyton equinum].

Tests were performed on 130 one-month-old calves. In 16 animals, treatment with a suspension of Trichophyton verrucosum culture at the dosage of 5 mil. conidia for an area of 10 x 10 of the clipped skin caused clinical trichophytic changes. The length of the incubation time was shorter in the calves scarified before inoculation of the infecting culture (10 to 13 days), as compared with the group of calves without scarification of the skin (11 to 19 days). Only 3 in 6 calves, infected by the same dose into non clipped skin, did contract trichophytosis, manifesting themselves as separate mycotic deposits, which appeared 26 to 35 days after inoculation. Trichophytic changes lasted longest in the group with scarification of the infected area. The ID50 in T. verrucosum and T. equinum cultures was about 1500 conidia per one calf in the case of the method of infecting into clipped scarified skin (area 100 sq cm). A 10 times lower dose (150 conidia per one calf) of the T. verrucosum suspension did not induce visible mycotic changes, but the T. equinum inoculation produced infection in one of 10 calves.