PART II. ANTIFUNGAL DRUGS, ANTIFUNGAL SUBSTANCE, COMPOUNDS AND DRUGS. REVIEW

The incidence of fungal infections have tendency to increase worldwide. The need for new antifungal agents has arisen largely through the increase in numbers of fungal infections. Relatively few agents were available for treatment of mycoses, e.g. amphotericin B, flucytosine, griseofulvine and few azoles (ketoconazole, enilconazole). The knowledge of fungal cell structure, function and metabolism gave the opportunity to synthesize new agents. The search for new, potent and broadly active antimycotics, new targets in fungal cell, modification of currently known agents was of a big interest during the past decades. This lead to development of novel antifungals belonging to wide range of structural classes, selectively acting on novel targets with fewer side effects to animals. Recently, there are more than one hundred antimycotic agents that possess fungicidal or fungistatic activity. Modem antimycotics are active chemical compounds, missaplication of which may be harmful to an animal. In our previous review the fungal cell structure, function and targets for antifungal agents were described. This review includes the mechanism of action, spectra of activity, administration of antifungals in current use in veterinary medicine, efficacy or toxicity of antifungal therapy.