A cluster of rare fungal infections was found in two pet cats and a vet who treated them, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday in a report in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. The three cases — which took place in late 2022 and early 2023 — were caused by a fungus called Sporothrix schenckii. The report comes as the CDC is monitoring the spread of a similar fungal infection, also in cats, in South America.
Arturo Casadevall, a microbiologist and chair of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, who was not involved with the report. However, he added, “these infections take a long time to get better.” The Kansas Department of Health and Environment suspects there was at least one other cat on the property that was infected, a stray cat with face lesions that died on the property but was not tested.