Morphometry of Demodex Canis and Demodex Cornei in Dogs with Demodicosis in India

In the two years period of research on canine dermatology at College Hospital of College of Veterinary Science Tirupati, 32 dogs with dermatological problems found to have demodicosis. In these cases demodicosis was confirmed by clinical examination, microscopic examination of scrapings and tape impression smears collected from the lesions. In these two different types of Demodex mites were identified based on their habitat and morphology along with micrometry. Micrometry was carried out on 320 mites of two different types of Demodex collected from the all the cases. Demodex canis was identified in skin scrapings with pointed opisthosomal terminal end and mean body length of 211.81± 14.86 μm and mean width of 37.68±0.31 μm. Demodex cornei was noticed in tape impression smears and identification was based on its morphology (stubby farm with a blunt posterior opisthosoma end) and its mean length of 137.15 ± 37.72 μm and mean width of 38.28±0.19 μm. Lengths of total body and opisthosoma of both types of the mites differed statistically significantly but, gnathosoma and podosoma did not differ significantly.