Morphological characterization of demodex mites and its therapeutic management with neem leaves in canine demodicosis

Abstract

The present investigation was focused on morphological characterization of demodex mites and its therapeutic management with neem leaves in canine demodicosis conducted in Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Veterinary College, Hassan from April 2016 to March 2017. The skin scrapings were collected from clinical cases suspected for canine demodicosis presented to the Teaching Veterinary Clinical complex, Hassan Veterinary College among which 25 clinical cases were selected and examined. Two species of demodex mites were observed viz., D. canis and D. cornei. The microscopic examination of skin scrapings revealed the presence of mixed infection with D. canis and D. cornei in 4 and only D. canis in 5 dogs. The morphometry of mites revealed that mean total body length (130.1 ± 14 µm) of D. cornei was much less than that of D. canis (210.6 ± 12.6 µm).