In the Malaysian environment horses are primarily used in sports activities such as racing, endurance, dressage and show jumping as well as in recreational pursuits and police work. Recently, the Perak Turf Club witnessed the death of a four-yearold thoroughbred mare which was given enrofloxacin injection as treatment and was regularly dewormed and vaccinated againstequine influenza, Japanese encephalitis and tetanus. Post-mortem examination of intestinal contents revealed presence of worms. The sample was then sent to the Veterinary Research Institute (VRI), Perak for morphological identification of the worm. The worm was identified as Parascaris equorum. Thus, awareness ongastrointestinal parasites should be raised especially by recommending improved management practices such as proper manure disposal and deworming procedures to control parasite infestations as well as good management and nutrition.

Wild rats are known as a major reservoir and intermediate host for several pathogenic microbial species. Thus, theVeterinary Research Institute (VRI) conducted a survey to determine the presence of parasitic pathogens in local rats, such as blood protozoans, gastrointestinal parasites, as well as ectoparasites such as mites and lice. The study was conducted with the collaboration of Kuala Lumpur City Council Pest Control Unit, whereby a total of 105 wild rats were trapped at two urban areas of Kuala Lumpur; namely PasarPudu and Chow Kit. Autopsy was done on the rats to acquire the skin, organ and blood samples..The skin scrapping was performed on skin samples to identify the common species of mites and lice, while the floatationtechnique was conducted on faecal samples to identify helminth eggs. Results showed thatspecies of Tritrichomonas, Strongyloides, Nippostrongylus, Blastocystis, Rodentolepis, Coccidia, Trichuris, Capillaria and Ascarid were found in the faeces while Trypanosoma sp.was found in the blood samples taken from the animals. Taeniataeniformis was obtained from liver samples while theectoparasites found on skin were identified as Radfordia,Polyplax,Linognathus and Hoploplurasp. Control and eradication of rodent pests is crucial in combating emerging and re-emerging diseases which may be zoonotic as rodents are reservoirs to various pathogens.

The major causes of the decline of the Dugong population along the urban coast of Mersing, Johor includes gill netting, subsistence hunting, habitat loss from extreme weather events that are likely to be exacerbated by climate change, humansettlement, breach of the bots and sea water pollution. In March 2017, a male Dugong dugon, estimated age of 10 to 20 years, wasincidentally found dead near Pulau Tinggi, Mersing, Johor by a fisherman. The entire body was found to have old and new scarsat the anterior part of the abdomen. The right eye was protruded out and bleeding which indicated that the eye was piercedby a sharp object. Necropsy revealed the upper small intestine and the stomach compartments were semi-impacted with a massive helminth burden (more than 1,000 nematodes). Paradujardinia halicoris worms were identified based on morphological characteristics. Zoonotic fungus named Madurella mycetomi were isolated from heart and lung after incubation for 14 days.Histologically, the lung was confirmed to have the presence of big mast cells which formed capsules, indicating presence offungal spores causing systemic mycoses where the macrophages invade and engulf the spores. The shrinkage of myocardium myocyte and myocardium necrosis with mild vasculitis indicates heart failure. Groucott’s stain confirmed Madurella mycetomi infection that induced systemic pulmonary and myocardium mycosis in Dugong dugon.