The Fungassay® Dermatophyte Test Kit makes it easy to diagnose fungus infections on the skin, including ringworm. Simply place the infected hair or scales on the test medium, and the color will change as early as 48 hours after inoculation to indicate diagnosis. If dermatophyte infection is present, the medium color will change from amber to red. This is a simple, rapid and practical method for confirming diagnosis of dermatophyte infections. It provides accurate and easy-to-interpret results. No preparation necessary. Do not freeze. For dogs, cats, cattle, sheep and horses.
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Refrigerate the test medium. Warming to room temperature before use is not necessary.
Destroy the used test medium bottle by incineration to eliminate the spread of all organisms.
When removing the cap from the bottle, take care to avoid contamination.
When replacing the cap, make certain that it remains loose so that air exchange can occur in the bottle during incubation. When the cap is too tight, color change will not develop.
Keep out of reach of children.
1. Washing is indicated only in cases of heavy contamination or encrustation. If the site is washed prior to sampling, a non-medicated, non-fungicidal soap is recommended, followed by drying with an absorptive material. These steps remove saprophytic organisms which could overgrow the culture, thus masking the growth of pathogenic fungi.
2. Select hair and scales for culture from both the periphery and the center of the lesion. Broken, frayed or distorted hairs, and those that fluoresce with Wood's light, are the best specimens.
3. Remove only a small portion of hair and scales from the lesion with a hemostat or thumb forcep. Avoid placing large amounts of hair and scales on the medium: this will produce useless overgrowth of the contaminants.
4. When removing the cap from the test medium bottle, take care to avoid contamination.
5. Press the hair and scales on the culture medium to ensure good contact, but do not bury the specimen in the medium.
6. When replacing the cap, make certain that it remains loose so that air exchange can occur in the bottle during incubation. When the cap is too tight color change will not develop.
7. Identify the bottle with patient and date.
8. Incubate at room temperature so that suitable growth will occur.
9. Evaluation of the test results can begin as early as 48 hours after inoculation. A pinkish color will appear in the amber medium under the specimen and developing colony. The color will intensify as growth proceeds and is due to alkaline metabolites produced by the dermatophytes. When a positive dermatophyte infection is present, the entire medium will turn red by the seventh to fourteenth day. If there is no growth within ten days, redistribute the sample on the medium. Occasionally growth does not occur because of improper inoculation.
10. A color change may occasionally be produced by a specimen heavily contaminated with saprophytic fungi or bacteria. However this is not a problem because differentiation from dermatophytes can be made as follows:
Dermatophyte: A color change appears in the medium with colony growth - colony pigments are usually light colored.
Saprophyte fungi: Colony growth is well established before any color change appears in the medium - colony pigments are usually dark colored.
Bacteria: The morphology of bacterial colonies differs from the morphology of fungal colonies.
For dogs, cats, cattle, sheep and horses.
