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Objectives: To review the homogeneity of pharmacological prescription and control measures applied in cases of scabies in prisons in Catalonia., Material and Method: Observational, multicenter, and retrospective study. Cases of scabies from March 01, 2021 and March 01, 2022 were analyzed according to the International Alliance for the Control of Scabies (IACS) 2020 criteria: a) confirmed cases; b) clinically probable cases; and c) suspected cases.Epidemiological, clinical, therapeutic and regimental control variables were collected. We checked whether the interventions were homogeneous in each site. The mean and standard deviation were used as continuous variables and percentages and confidence interval (95%) for discrete variables. The Chi-square test was used to determine statistical association., Results: 269 cases were detected (21.2% confirmed, 50.2% clinically probable and 28.6% suspected). 61.3% were treated with permethrin, 18.6% with ivermectin and 20.1% with both. 27.1% of the cases were withdrawn.There were no significant in-site differences in the study of contacts, isolation and treatment of clothing and belongings, but there were significant differences in the prescription of drugs (P <0.001), duration of treatment (P <0.001) and disinfection of the cell (P <0.001)., Discussion: The number of detected cases is estimated to be high, and the majority (71.4%) confirmed or clinically probable. Control measures are homogeneous, except for cell disinfection, which was conventional in 59.1%. Pharmacological treatment and its duration varied between prisons. It would be advisable to establish a protocol to standardize control measures applied to new cases in the centers of Catalonia and subsequently evaluate their efficacy.

Sexually transmitted infections are communicable diseases where the pathogen is transmitted through sexual contact. The Sexually Transmitted Infections Working Group of the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (AEDV) is engaged in the drafting of documents to guide dermatologists and health care personnel who treat Spanish patients with these infections. This document analyzes the epidemiological, clinical, therapeutic, and control characteristics of 2 sexually transmitted parasitosis: scabies due to Sarcoptes scabiei var. hominis, and pubic pediculosis due to Phthirus pubis. Both parasitoses share a sort of mixed spread through sexual and community transmission regardless of the route through which the infection was initially acquired. This specific feature creates particularities in the management and control of the infestation., (Copyright © 2023 AEDV. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Background: Sarcoptic mange is a broadly distributed parasitic disease caused by Sarcoptes scabiei that affects wild mammals from all over the world, including the Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica). Selective culling of the scabietic individuals is the main management measure for disease control in Iberian ibex populations. Although visual identification of mange-compatible lesions is the reference method to decide the target individual, both false negative and positive cases are common in the wild. The aim of this work is to determine the sensitivity (SE), and the specificity (SP) of selective culling after evaluating 403 ibexes hunted in the Sierra Nevada Nature Space for sarcoptic mange control between 2002 and 2015., Methods: A combination of skin scrapings and potassium hidroxide (KOH) skin digestion was used for sarcoptic mange diagnosis. Generalized linear models (GLM) were used to assess the effects of sex, age (juveniles and adults) and period of the year (wet and dry periods) on the SE and SP of the visual diagnosis method., Results: The SE obtained for the visual determination of scabietic ibexes was 87.14%, whereas the SP was 60.71%. According to our model selection, SE of the visual diagnosis was explained by the additive effects of age and the period of the year. In fact, SE was lower in juveniles (64.76%) than in adults (94.26%) and during the dry period (73.44%) as compared to the wet period (92.09%). On the other hand, SP was best explained by the GLM including the additive effects of sex and the period of the year. The visual diagnosis of sarcoptic mange resulted less specific in females (22.73%) than in males (74.19%) and during the wet (55.22%) than in the dry period (82.35%)., Conclusions: Maximizing SE and SP is essential to achieving a high rate of removal of affected individuals from the environment without eliminating potentially resistant individuals. Selective culling must be conservative during the wet period and with females due to the lower SP. Conversely, visual diagnosis of scabietic juveniles and during the dry period has to be improved, due to the lower SE.

Background: Sarcoptic mange is a contagious skin disease caused by the mite Sarcoptes scabiei, affecting different mammalian species worldwide including the Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica), in which mortalities over 90 % of the population have been reported. No efficient diagnostic methods are available for this disease, particularly when there are low mite numbers and mild or no clinical signs. In this study, three enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) developed for dog (ELISA A), Cantabrian chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica parva) (ELISA B) and Alpine chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) (ELISA C), were evaluated to detect specific antibodies (IgG) to sarcoptic mange in Iberian ibex sera., Methods: Serum samples from 131 Iberian ibexes (86 healthy and 45 scabietic) were collected from 2005 to 2012 in the Sierra Nevada Natural and National Parks (southern Spain). Based on visual inspection, ibexes were classified into one of three categories, namely healthy (without scabietic compatible lesions), mildly affected (skin lesions over less than 50 % of the body surface) and severely affected (skin lesions over more than 50 % of the body surface). The optimal cut-off point, specificity, sensitivity and the area under the curve (AUC) were calculated, and the agreement between tests was determined. Moreover, differences in the optical density (OD) related to scabies severity have been evaluated for the best test., Results: ELISA C showed better performance than the two other tests, reaching higher values of sensitivity (93.0 %) and specificity (93.5 %) against the visual estimation of the percentage of affected skin, chosen as the gold standard. Significantly higher concentrations of specific antibodies were observed with this test in the mildly and severely infested ibexes than in healthy ones., Conclusions: Our results revealed that ELISA C was an optimal test to diagnose sarcoptic mange in the Iberian ibex. Further studies characterizing immune response during the course of the disease, including spontaneous or drug induced recovery, should follow in order to better understand sarcoptic mange in Iberian ibex populations.

An ELISA, based on the Sarcoptes scabiei Ssλ20ΔB3 inmunodominant antigen, was evaluated for the detection of antibodies to S. scabiei in experimentally infested (n=10), farm (n=109), and wild (n=78) rabbit sera. The S. scabiei antigen Ssλ20ΔB3, a major structural protein present over the entire mite's body, was produced as a recombinant protein in Escherichia coli and purified for its use in the ELISA. The resulting ELISA showed, in experimentally infested domestic rabbits, detectable specific antibody responses (IgG) above the cut off level from week three post-infestation indicating that the assay is able to detect positive rabbits very early during the course of the infestation. The ELISA was validated on a panel of 109 domestic breeding rabbit sera collected from 26 Spanish farms, of which 41 were obtained from rabbits with skin lesions compatible with sarcoptic mange, 26 with skin lesions compatible with psoroptic mange, and 42 from unexposed individuals from mange-free farms. The ELISA in this group was characterized by 95% sensitivity, 97% specificity, and a high degree of repeatability. In the psoroptic mange compatible lesions group, included in the study as control group for cross-reactivity with the closely related mite Psoroptes cuniculi, cross-reacting antibodies to Ssλ20ΔB3 S. scabiei antigen were detected in 42.30% of the rabbit sera. However, mean% OD values of the sarcoptic-mange group (55.61 ± 39.20%) were significantly higher (p<0.001) than OD values of the psoroptic-mange (3.64% ± 5.4%) and also of the free-mange (0.21% ± 0.67%) groups. In addition, the ELISA was also evaluated in serum samples obtained from both naturally infested and non-infested wild rabbits from Mallorca Island. The sensitivity of the assay for this group was 100% (4 out of the 4 rabbits with sarcoptic mange compatible lesions and presence of S. scabiei mites were seropositive) and the specificity was 90% (67 out of 74 wild rabbits without detectable mange lesions were seronegative). Although, the total number of tested samples from experimentally infested, farm and wild rabbits was limited, our study showed that the ELISA is able to differentiate between infested and non-infested animals in all tested groups with very high sensitivity and specificity indicating that recombinant Ssλ20ΔB3 is a reliable diagnostic antigen. This assay might be a cost-effective tool for detecting the presence of mangy animals and therefore helping prevent spread of mange among domestic rabbits, reducing potential transmission from female breeding rabbits to other farms, and detecting infestation with sarcoptic mange in the wild., (Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Sarcoptic mange was recently described in the wild European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in north-eastern Mediterranean Spain, the first such infection reported in this species anywhere in the world. This finding has created concern in conservationists and game managers given that an outbreak of mange after a translocation would have catastrophic consequences for naïve rabbit populations in other parts of Spain. A retrospective serosurvey using an 'in house' ELISA test based on the use of a recombinant antigen aimed at determining the rates of contact with Sarcoptes scabiei was carried out on sera from 966 rabbits collected between 1993 and 2010 in Spain. Antibodies were found in 13% of wild rabbits in 60% of the 53 areas surveyed, as well as in 16 of the 17 Spanish provinces and islands studied. Seropositive rabbits were found amongst the oldest samples analyzed and in all studied years. Antibodies were also detected in 36% of rabbits from the protected island of Dragonera, where rabbits have probably not been released since the 1970s. On Mallorca, where 89 rabbits were inspected for both lesions and antibodies, the prevalence of lesions (5.6%) was much lower than the seroprevalence (22.5%), indicating that rabbits often survive infection or that ELISA detects infected rabbits before they develop visible lesions. Seroprevalence was higher in areas with medium levels of rabbit abundance, no restocking and high rainfall. The results show that mange is widespread in rabbits and that the mite is not a recent introduction. Thus, sarcoptic mange could be considered as an enzootic disease in the wild rabbit and so prophylactic measures implemented during rabbit translocations are to be encouraged to avoid local outbreaks in naïve populations., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of Sarcoptes scabiei-infection of ovine livestock in three provinces (Leon, Zamora and Salamanca) in the Western part of the Castile and Leon region in Spain, and to determine the association between different variables and seropositivity. A total of 3730 sheep sera from 373 flocks (10 sera from each flock) collected from May to September over the course of the years 2006 and 2007 were individually analysed by an indirect antibody ELISA validated for diagnosing sarcoptic mange in sheep. The overall flock-level true prevalence was 22.6% (95% CI: 17.8-27.4), the overall individual-level true prevalence within the total flocks was 7.2% (95% CI: 6.1-8.3) and the overall individual-level true prevalence within the seropositive flocks was 31.3% (95% CI: 27.2-35.4). The apparent prevalences, at flock-level and at individual-level within the total flocks and within the seropositive flocks, were not statistically different (p > 0.05) when the primary production objective of the flock is milk vs. meat, or in smaller (< or = 276 sheep, 50th percentile) vs. larger flocks (> 276 sheep). The apparent prevalences, at flock-level and at individual-level within the seropositive flocks, were, likewise, not statistically different between the three provinces, but the individual-level apparent prevalence within the total flocks showed significant variation from one province to another (p < or = 0.05). Sheep maintained in the Provinces of Zamora and Salamanca had greater odds (OR = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.2-2.6; OR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.3-2.8, respectively) of being seropositive than those located in Leon Province (OR = 1.0). The findings of the present study clearly show the need to implement in this region effective control measures against sarcoptic mange in sheep., (2010. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The Spanish ibex (Capra pyrenaica hispanica) population of southern Spain was surveyed for potential pathogens associated with the conjunctiva, external ear canal, as well as reproductive and upper respiratory tracts. We sampled 321 ibex (131 adult males, 100 adult females, and 90 yearlings); these included 271 apparently healthy animals and 50 that were naturally infected with Sarcoptes scabiei. A total of 688 bacterial isolates were identified (377 gram-negatives, 225 gram-positives, and 86 Mycoplasma spp.); sex, age, location, infection with S. scabiei, and disposition of the animal (free-ranging versus captive) were evaluated as risk factors for infection. Infections with Mycoplasma agalactiae and Mycoplasma arginini were associated with age, having a higher frequency of isolation in young animals. With Escherichia coli, Mannheimia haemolytica, Pasteurella multocida biotype A, and Staphylococcus aureus, significantly higher isolation rates were associated with adults. The isolation frequency for E. coli was higher in females, whereas Moraxella bovis isolations were mostly associated with males. The presence of mange increased the risk of infection with both Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus and M. haemolytica. The geographic origin of sampled animals was related to the isolation of Branhamella ovis, M. agalactiae, and all Pasteurella sp. Isolations of M. haemolytica, P. multocida biotype A, E. coli, and B. ovis were more prevalent in samples from free-ranging rather than captive animals. Of the gram-positive bacteria, S. aureus represented the predominant species isolated from nasal, vaginal, and ocular samples. Mycoplasma agalactiae and M. arginini were the predominant Mycoplasma spp., and both were associated most often with the external ear canal. The most frequently isolated gram-negative bacteria included E. coli, M. haemolytica, P. multocida biotype A, and B. ovis. Isolation rates of gram-negative species varied by source. In nasal samples, M. haemolytica and P. multocida biotype A were isolated most frequently, whereas in ocular and vaginal samples, B. ovis and E. coli, respectively, were most frequently isolated.

An outbreak of scabies occurred in a ward of a local hospital in Barbastro (Huesca, Spain), between November 2002 and January 2003. The outbreak was linked to a patient infested with mites when he was admitted to the ward on 1 November 2002. The first case had onset of symptoms on 5 November and the last one on 5 January 2003. Seventeen cases were reported: 11 healthcare workers (HCWs) and six patients. The outbreak was attributed to a delay in diagnosis, and lack of individual protection measures by caregivers. The use of short-sleeved coats is an habitual risk practice in this ward. Contact with fomites, animals, infested clothes or intimate contact with people other than their usual partners were dismissed as risk factors for the infestation. The different groups of caregivers in this ward presented a similar risk of becoming infested, and the mechanism of transmission was probably person to person contact. The implementation of specific guidelines for scabies prevention and treatment, as well as an active surveillance system, were fundamental to the control of this outbreak.