[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.

[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.