Brief communication Mycotic skin lesions in an adult reindeer caused by Debaryomyces bansenii. A case report

Skin lesions characterized by loss of hair, general thickening, yellowish discoloration, papillomatous focal thickening and scaling (Figs. 1 and 2) had, since late September 1993, been observed in an approximately 4 year old reindeer bul l which was corralled together with several other reindeer and fed through the winter period and thus observed during the autumn and winter periods. The lesions were irregular 1.5 x 1 cm to 10 x 15 cm in size, and occurred mainly on ventral parts of the abdomen, along the lateral parts of the neck and on the head. Fig. 1. Skin of reindeer. Note loss of hair and thick scaled surface. They were considered to be caused by ectoparasites and the animal was treated wi th ivermectin several times but did not recover. None of the other ani-mals in the same corral showed similar lesions. The animal was slaughteted in early March. After slaughter, at meat inspection, besides moderately enlarged prescapular lymph nodes, only skin lesions were found. Large pieces of the untteated skin were submit-ted to the National Veterinary Institute for bacteri-ological, fungal and histopathological investigati