title: Ascarid infestation in captive Siberian tigers in China.
abstract: The Siberian tiger is endangered and is listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature; the captive environment is utilized to maintain Siberian tiger numbers. Little information regarding the prevalence of parasites in Siberian tigers is available. A total of 277 fecal samples of Siberian tigers were analyzed in this study. The microscopic analysis indicated the presence of ascarid eggs of Toxascaris leonina and Toxocara cati. The ascarid infection rate was 67.5% in Siberian tigers. The internal transcribed spacer-1 (ITS-1) phylogenetic analysis indicated that T. leonina belonged to Toxascaris and that Toxo. cati belonged to Toxocara. The infestation rate and intensity of T. leonina were higher than those of Toxo. cati. One-way analysis of variance showed that the presence of T. leonina was significantly associated with age (P<0.05). Temperature changes also influenced T. leonina and Toxo. cati infestation, and a rise in temperature caused an increase in the number of T. leonina and Toxo. cati eggs. This study provides a better understanding of ascarid infestation among the captive Siberian tigers and is helpful for the prevention of the spread of infectious parasitic diseases among other tigers in the zoo.
authors: College of Wildlife Resources, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040 Heilongjiang Province, China.
authors: Zhiwei
authors: Z
authors: Peng
authors: College of Wildlife Resources, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040 Heilongjiang Province, China.
authors: Shijie
authors: S
authors: Liu
authors: College of Wildlife Resources, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040 Heilongjiang Province, China; Key Laboratory of Wildlife Conservation, China State Forestry Administration, Harbin 150040, China. Electronic address: houzhijundz@163.com.
authors: Zhijun
authors: Z
authors: Hou
authors: College of Wildlife Resources, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, 150040 Heilongjiang Province, China. Electronic address: xingmingwei@nefu.edu.cn.
authors: Mingwei
authors: M
authors: Xing
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000818:Animals; D000836:Animals, Zoo / Q000469:parasitology*; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D056727:Endangered Species; D005243:Feces / Q000469:parasitology; D010270:Parasite Egg Count / Q000662:veterinary; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D015995:Prevalence; D013696:Temperature; D046010:Tigers / Q000469:parasitology*; D017227:Toxascariasis / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology / Q000662:veterinary*; D014114:Toxascaris / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D014119:Toxocara / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D014120:Toxocariasis / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000469:parasitology*
keywords: Age; Siberian tiger; Temperature; Toxascaris leonina; Toxocara cati