Chinchilla Ivermectin Study Protocol

This study included 10 adult chinchillas (5 males and 5 females), ranging in age from 1–2 years, which belong to a commercial farm in Beijing, China. No animals participating in the study received any treatment prior to the experiment. Chinchillas were placed in individual cages, within a climate-controlled room temperature maintaining between 21 °C and 23 °C, and they were provided with a commercial pelleted diet (Mazuri^® Chinchilla Diets, Land O’Lakes, Inc., Melrose, MN, USA) with fresh timothy hay and tap water ad libitum. All animals were clinically healthy based on normal physical examination and close observation of food intake and fecal output. The shape and color of all fecal pellets during the experiment were normal, and for fecal samples collected from the 10 chinchillas on day 0 (before ivermectin injection) and day 14 (14 days after ivermectin injection), no gastrointestinal parasites were found in fecal fresh smear and zinc sulfate floating test under microscopic examination. Our study was approved by the animal care and use committee of China Agricultural University and we obtained the informed consent statement from the breeder.