Impact of culture medium on antifungal susceptibility results for Microsporum canis and Nannizzia gypsea: A comparative study of disc diffusion and E-test performance
Abstract
The absence of standardized culture media for antifungal susceptibility testing (AFST) of animal dermatophytes leads to considerable challenges in result interpretation and treatment selection. This study aimed to compare the performance of Mueller-Hinton Agar (MHA) and Dermasel Agar (DA) for AFST of feline dermatophytes using disc diffusion and E-test methodologies. Skin and hair samples were collected from cats exhibiting clinical signs of dermatophytosis, including alopecia, erythema, and pruritus. A total of 28 dermatophyte isolates were identified by conventional techniques, of which 26 were identified as Microsporum (M.) canis, and 2 as Nannizzia (N.) gypsea. Antifungal susceptibility to itraconazole, fluconazole, ketoconazole, clotrimazole, posaconazole, and voriconazole was determined using the disc diffusion method on both media. In addition, the E-test method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentrations of these antifungal agents. The performance of the media was evaluated according to ISO 11133 standards. Comparison of susceptibility profiles showed that while both M. canis (n=26) and N. gypsea (n=2) were highly susceptible to posaconazole and voriconazole, their efficacy diverged for other agents: itraconazole was effective against M. canis, whereas N. gypsea was more susceptible to clotrimazole. High productivity rates and consistent colony morphology were observed in MHA. Since MHA is a non-selective and nutritionally balanced medium for the AFST of M. canis and N. gypsea, it is preferred over DA. This study provides crucial data to inform reproducible, evidence-based antifungal therapy and to monitor trends in resistance.
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Details
| Primary Language | English |
|---|---|
| Subjects | Veterinary Bacteriology, Veterinary Mycology, Veterinary Microbiology, Veterinary Diagnosis and Diagnostics |
| Journal Section | Research Article |
| Authors | |
| Submission Date | June 4, 2025 |
| Acceptance Date | January 7, 2026 |
| Early Pub Date | April 9, 2026 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.33988/auvfd.1695492 |
| IZ | https://izlik.org/JA53JW38LY |
| Published in Issue | Year 2026 Issue: Advanced Online Publication |
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‘Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi’ aims to disseminate high-quality, peer-reviewed scientific research that contributes to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of veterinary medicine and animal science. The journal seeks to serve as an international platform for the publication of original research articles, short communications, case reports, and invited review articles, promoting scientific excellence and interdisciplinary collaboration. Ankara Univ Vet Fak Derg publishes review articles by invitation only.
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2. AOAC (2000): Association of Official Analytical Chemists, Official Methods of Analysis, 17th ed. AOAC International Maryland USA.
3. Bishop CD (1995): Antiviral activity of the essential oil of Melaleuca alternifolia (Maiden and Betche) Cheel (tea tree) against tobacco mosaic virus. J Essential Oil Res, 7, 641- 644. DOI: 10.33988/auvfd. 1748170.
4. Hui YH (1996): Oleoresins and essential oils. 145-153. In: Hui YH (Ed.). Bailey’s industrial oil and fat products. Wiley-Interscience Publication. New York, USA.
5. Lamont LA, Bulmer BJ, Sisson DD, et al (2002): Doppler echocardiographic effects of medetomidine on dynamic left ventricular outflow tract obstruction in cats. J Am Vet Med Assoc, 221, 1276-1281. DOI: 10.33988/auvfd. 1748170.
6. Sandstedt K, Ursing J, Walder M (1983): Thermotolerant Campylobacter with no or weak catalase activity isolated from dogs. Curr Microbiol, 8, 209-213. DOI: 10.33988/auvfd. 1748170.
7. Sandstedt K, Ursing J (1991): Description of the Campylobacter upsaliensis previously known as CNW group. Syst Appl Microbiol, 14, 39-45. DOI: 10.33988/auvfd. 1748170.
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For proceedings:
Griban VG, Stepchenko LM, Zhorina LV (1988): The live weight gain and disease resistance of young cattle and poultry stock as influenced by physiologically active peat preparation. 45-50. In: Proceedings of 8th International Peat Congress. Leningrad, Russia.
For books:
Falconer DS (1960): Introduction to Quantitative Genetics. Oliver and Boyd Ltd, Edinburgh.
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Antak A (2013): Impact of Stress on Poultry Production and Welfare. PhD thesis, in Turkish. Ankara University, Ankara, Türkiye.
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Li G, Hart A, Gregory J (1998): Effect of velocity gradient on flocculation. Available at http://www.server.com/projects/paper2.html. (Accessed May 20, 2004).
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If you encounter any unethical situation or content related to Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi, please report it to:
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INFORMED CONSENT POLICY
Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi is committed to implementing informed consent in accordance with research ethics, based on the Declaration of Helsinki: Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects and the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals.
Informed consent and approval from the relevant ethics committee must be obtained for clinical studies involving humans, animals, or human/animal-derived specimens, and this information must be clearly stated in the related section. For studies involving human volunteers, a written informed consent form, prepared in accordance with the research protocol, must be obtained.
For studies involving case reports or personal data, all necessary written permissions must be obtained and retained by the authors for potential legal requirements. Human-related information must not be included in the manuscript without the appropriate permissions.
An Informed Consent statement indicating that participants provided consent after being fully informed about all procedures performed within the scope of the study must be included in articles reporting results obtained from studies involving human material. For experimental studies conducted on humans, a statement confirming that volunteers signed a written informed consent form, including a detailed description of the procedures performed, must be provided.
Analytical studies involving human participants must include a statement of informed consent in the related section. It is journal policy to ensure the confidentiality of participants and to protect personal identity in all cases.
JOURNAL POLICY
• Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi (Ankara Univ Vet Fak Derg) is an international, peer reviewed, and open access scientific journal published quarterly in January, April, July, and October.
• There are no submission, publication, or page charges for articles published in Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi.
• The journal applies double-blind peer review.
• At least two independent external reviewers are required.
• Two positive reviewer reports are mandatory for acceptance.
• The anticipated review period is within six months, excluding author revision time.
• All published content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
• The submission and publication of content created by artificial intelligence, language models, machine learning, or similar technologies is discouraged, unless part of formal research design or methods, and is not permitted without clear description of the content that was created and the name of the model or tool, version and extension numbers, and manufacturer. Authors must take responsibility for the integrity of the content generated by these models and tools.
Additional information for authors:
AI Used in Manuscript Preparation
When traditional and generative AI technologies are used to create, review, revise, or edit any of the content in a manuscript, authors should report in the Acknowledgment section the following:
Name of the AI software platform, program, or tool
Version and extension numbers
Manufacturer
Date(s) of use
A brief description of how the AI was used and on what portions of the manuscript or content
Confirmation that the author(s) take responsibility for the integrity of the content generated
Note this guidance does not apply to basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references, and similar.
AI Used in Research
When AI (eg, large language model [LLM] or natural language processing [NLP], supervised or unsupervised machine learning [ML] for predictive/prescriptive or clustering tasks, chatbots, or similar other technologies) is used as part of a scientific study, authors should:
Follow relevant reporting guidelines for specific study designs when they exist and report each recommended guideline element with sufficient detail to enable reproducibility.
Avoid inclusion of identifiable patient information in text, tables, and figures.
Be aware of copyright and intellectual property concerns - if including content (text, images) generated by AI, and indicate rights or permissions to publish that content as determined by the AI service or owner.
Also address the following:
Methods Section
Include the study design and, if a relevant reporting guideline exists, indicate how it was followed, with sufficient detail to enable reproducibility.
Describe how AI was used for specific aspects of the study (eg, to generate or refine study hypotheses, assist in the generation of a list of adjustment variables, create graphs to show visual relationships).
For studies using LLMs, provide the name of the platform or program, tool, version, and manufacturer; specify dates and prompt(s) used and their sequence and any revisions to prompts in response to initial outputs.
For studies reporting ML and algorithm development, include details about data sets used for development, training, and validation. Clearly state if algorithms were trained and tested only on previously collected or existing data sets or if the study includes prospective deployment. Include the ML model and describe the variables and outcome(s) and selection of the fine-tuning parameters. Describe any assumptions involved (eg, log linearity, proportionality) and how these assumptions were tested.
Indicate the metric used to evaluate the performance of the algorithms, including bias, discrimination, calibration, reclassification, and others as appropriate.
Indicate the methods used to address missing data.
Indicate institutional review board/ethics review, approval, waiver, or exemption.
Describe methods or analyses included to address and manage AI-related methodologic bias and inaccuracy of AI-generated content.
Indicate, when appropriate, if sensitivity analyses were performed to explore the performance of the AI model in vulnerable or underrepresented subgroups.
Provide a data sharing statement, including if code will be shared.
Results Section
When reporting comparisons, provide performance assessments (eg, against standard of care), include effect sizes and measures of uncertainty (eg, 95% CIs) and other measurements such as likelihood ratios, and include information about performance errors, inaccurate or missing data, and sufficient detail for others to reproduce the findings.
Report the results of analyses to address methodologic bias and population representation.
If examples of generated text or content are included in tables or figures, be sure to indicate the source and licensing information, as noted above.
Discussion Section
Discuss the potential for AI-related bias and what was done to identify and mitigate such bias.
Discuss the potential for inaccuracy of AI-generated content and what was done to identify and manage this.
Discuss generalizability of findings across populations and results of analyses performed to explore the performance of the AI model in vulnerable or underrepresented subgroups.
Price Policy
There are no submission fees, publication fees or page charges for publication in ‘Ankara Univ Vet Fak Derg’.
