Clinical, Epidemiological, and Epizootic Features of Sporothrix brasiliensis in Espírito Santo, Brazil

We verified the clinical-epidemiological, microbiological, and molecular aspects of feline sporotrichosis in Espírito Santo, Brazil, as well as demonstrated the degree of reliability of the cytopathological examination in diagnosis, when compared to fungal culture. From March 2019 to April 2020, 154 suspicious cats were evaluated by collecting data and biological samples. The Cohen's kappa coefficient and the Chi-square independence defined the degree of agreement and the accuracy parameters, respectively. The interobserver agreement was high (Kappa coefficient = 0.96). Sensitivity, specificity, predictive (positive and negative), and accuracy values were 95.0, 97.0, 99.1, 84.2, and 95.5%, respectively. All isolates evaluated were identified as Sporothrix brasiliensis by species-specific PCR. A digital image bank (Padlet) was created with different types of clinical forms and positive slide profiles. We concluded that the cytopathological technique used demonstrated a high degree of reliability. We report an overwhelming occurrence of S. brasiliensis during epizooties in ES.