Ringworm in a population of snowshoe hares

The occurrence of ringworm, or dermatomycosis, in wild animals has been rarely reported. DeLamater (1939) described infections of Trichophyton mentagrophytes in common gray squirrels on and near the Johns Hopkins University campus at Baltimore. Errington (1942) and Charles (1946) reported on the occurrence of T. mentagrophytes in 35 of 364 litters (9.6%) of muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus zibethicus) in northwestern Iowa. Ninety-eight of 134 members (73%) of infected litters were recorded as contracting the fungus disease; of the 98, 90 died. Paul (1917), Lawrence (1918), and Connor (1932) mentioned ringworm epidemics of T. mentagrophytes among mice in wheat stacks of New South Wales and Victoria.