title: Prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis infection in living raccoon dogs assessed by hematological examination.
abstract: The prevalence of Dirofilaria immitis in free-ranging raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus) was examined in the southeast region of Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, using a rapid immunomigration (RIM) test kit. Between April 2007 and March 2010, we examined 108 raccoon dogs rescued and housed by the Kanazawa Zoological Garden. D. immitis infection was found in 8 (7.4%) raccoon dogs. This is the first report to reveal the prevalence of D. immitis infection in living raccoon dogs. The prevalence of the infection was lower than previously reported values obtained on postmortem examination. One reason might be that the present study included young raccoon dogs infected with immature worms. Significant high-risk areas of D. immitis infection in the raccoon dogs were not observed.
authors.affiliation: Kanazawa Zoological Gardens, Yokohama 236–0042, Japan. nobukido1977@yahoo.co.jp
authors.forename: Nobuhide
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kido
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: Maya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Chihiro
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kamegaya
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Omiya
authors.forename: Yasuhiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000947:Antigens, Helminth / Q000097:blood; D004183:Dirofilaria immitis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004184:Dirofilariasis / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology*; D007118:Immunoassay / Q000662:veterinary; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D046031:Raccoon Dogs / Q000469:parasitology*; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies
chemical_list: D000947:Antigens, Helminth