[Taxonomical approach to scabies mites of human and animals and their prevalence in Korea]

Department of Biology, College of Sciences, Chonbuk National University, Korea.

Three types, hitherto commonly known as varieties of Sarcoptes scabiei (Linnaeus, 1758) were collected from scabietic patients, pigs and dogs to confirm their taxonomic status. As a result, we consider that the mites of human and pig scabies are different subspecies [S. scabiei scabiei (Linnaeus, 1758) and S. scabiei suis Megnin, 1880, respectively], and that of dog scabies is a different species, S. canis Gerlach, 1857. Infestation rate of human scabies in Korea peaked in 1981-1982 and showed nearly 10% of prevalence rate among outpatients of the dermatology clinic, but decreased dramatically during the past ten years and now lowered below 1% since 1990. On the other hand, dog scabies seems to be increasing recently.

PMID: 7551808 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]