diff --git a/plugins/inputs/zookeeper/zookeeper.go b/plugins/inputs/zookeeper/zookeeper.go
index 5259e25b7..dd8ff7ea4 100644
--- a/plugins/inputs/zookeeper/zookeeper.go
+++ b/plugins/inputs/zookeeper/zookeeper.go
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/influxdata/telegraf/plugins/inputs"
 )
 
-var zookeeperFormatRE = regexp.MustCompile(`^zk_(\w+)\s+([\w\.\-]+)`)
+var zookeeperFormatRE = regexp.MustCompile(`^zk_(\w[\w\.\-]*)\s+([\w\.\-]+)`)
 
 // Zookeeper is a zookeeper plugin
 type Zookeeper struct {