Vet World   Vol.10   April-2017  Article-12

Molecular detection of Taenia spp. in dogs' feces in Zanjan Province, Northwest of Iran

Background and Aim: Echinococcus and Taenia spp. are important but neglected zoonotic helminths of dogs. Dogs as the most relevant definitive hosts harbor several species of Taenia and Echinococcus simultaneously in their gastrointestinal lumen which are morphologically indistinguishable. In this study, we used a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method to identify Taeniid infections which seem to be highly distributed in the study region.

Materials and Methods: A total of 450 dog fecal samples were collected from eight different areas of Zanjan province, northwest of Iran, and examined using a flotation method followed by multiplex PCR for detection and identification of parasites' eggs.

Results: Gastrointestinal parasites were found in 86 out of 450 fecal samples (19.1%) by microscopic examination. Taeniid eggs were observed in 5.6% of samples, containing 0.45%, 3.8%, and 1.3% Echinococcus granulosus, Taenia spp., and mix infection of both E. granulosus and Taenia spp., respectively. Echinococcus multilocularis was absent in the samples.

Conclusion: A relatively low rate of E. granulosus (1.8%) was observed in this study. However, risks of this parasite should not be overlooked, and control programs need to be extended for this species and other Taeniid spp. In particular, dogs are recommended to be dewormed more frequently. Keywords: dog, Echinococcus spp., eggs, multiplex polymerase chain reaction, Taenia spp.

Keywords: dog, Echinococcus spp., eggs, multiplex polymerase chain reaction, Taenia spp.

How to cite this article: Kohansal MH, Nourian A, Haniloo A, Fazaeli A (2017) Molecular detection of Taenia spp. in dogs' feces in Zanjan Province, Northwest of Iran, Veterinary World, 10(4): 445-449.

Received: 13-12-2016  Accepted: 14-03-2017     Published online: 23-04-2017

Corresponding author: Asghar Fazaeli   E-mail: fazaeli@zums.ac.ir

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2017.445-449

Copyright: Kohansal, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.