High prevalence of lipid-dependent Malassezia infections in dogs

Malassezia (M.) is a member of normal mycobiota in warm-blooded vertebrates. Increased humidity is likely to be crucial in this infection. We studied the proportion of the species infected in dog during summer of Korea. Fifty samples were analyzed by PCR-RFLP and direct sequencing from June 2006 to October 2006. The study showed that lipid-dependent species was main pathogen (M. furfur; 86%, M. obtusa; 10%) while M. pachydermatis (4%) has only small portion. This result suggests that Malassezia infection has endemic characters that can be affected by the climate (temperature and humidity) in dogs.