[New evidence for the spread of Thelazia callipaeda in the Far East].

Thelazia callipaeda nematodes parasitize in the eyes of domestic and wild carnivorous mammals (more often in Canidae). Numerous cases of human infestation are also known. The nematode spreads in South and East Asia although in the last decade this has been reported from dogs, cats and wolves in South and Central Europe as well. In the Russian Federation, T. callipaeda was earlier observed in dogs, cats, foxes and raccoon dogs in some regions of the Russian Far East. Two cases of human infestation were also reported. There has been no evidence of T. callipaeda in Russia in the past 50 years. Postmortem parasitological surveys of various wild carnivores were performed in the Primorsky Territory of Russia in the winter of 2012 to the summer of 2014. Conjunctival sac including the space under the nictitating membrane was sought for nematodes. T. callipaeda was detected in 28 sables of the 492 examined ones, in 5 out of the 11 raccoon dogs, in 2 out of the 3 foxes, and in one lynx. The examination of 25 kolinskies, 4 American minks, 3 Amur leopard cats, 2 yellow-throated martens and one badger provided negative results. The sable and the wild lynx are firstly reported as hosts of T. callipaeda. The findings suggest that there is a persisting natural reservoir of zoonotic thelaziosis in the Russian Far East. The epidemiological importance of this fact should not be underestimated.

[Mitochondrial cytochrome b gene variation in brown bear (Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758) from southern part of Russian Far East].

The genetic variability of brown bear Ursus arctos from the southern part of the Russian Far East was first ex- amined based on the variations in the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b sequence. The presence of two phylogenetic groups of haplotypes described previously for other parts of the species range was demonstrated. Part of the samples belonged to the haplotype group distributed across the whole range, while another part belonged to the rare group previously only reported for Japan and Alaska. These findings partially clarify the pattern of brown-bear colonization on the territory of the Russian Far East and Japan.