“…He demonstrated a ' gradient ' of host suitability in terms of parasite development and maturation with the fox better than the dog, and both better than the cat. Subsequent studies have compared development of E. multilocularis in dogs (Yamashita, Ohbayashi and Kitamura, 1958), dogs and cats (Crellin, Marchiondo and Andersen, 1981 ;Thompson and Eckert, 1983 ;Kamiya et al 1985 ;Kamiya, Ooi and Ohbayashi, 1986 ;Thompson, Deplazes and Eckert, 2003), foxes and dogs (Yagi, Ito and Ishige, 1996), foxes (Nonaka et al 1996) and cats (Jenkins and Romig, 2000), and have reinforced the fox as representing the optimum host for E. multilocularis in terms of worm burden and development. However, few of these studies have allowed infections to reach patency, and questions also remain regarding the suitability of the dog and cat, and now, more recently, the raccoon dog.…”