epidemiological study of gastrointestinal helminthes of canids in chaharmahal and bakhtiari province of iran.

background: the present study was carried out to describe the epidemio-logical aspects of gastrointestinal helminthic infections of canids in chahar-mahal and bakhtiari province, the central western part of iran . methods: forty nine canid species including , dogs, jackals, foxes and wolves were included in this study. the contents of their alimentary canal were in-spected in order to isolate and identify the parasitic helminthes of this system. to identify the worms, the soulsbey and anderson identification key and light microscopy were used. results: based on necropsy findings, 35 (71.4% ( of examined animals were infected with at least one helminth. the prevalence of identified worms was as follows: mesocestoides lineatus (55.1%), joyeuxiella echinorinchoides (26.5%), tae-nia hydatigena (12.2%), t. multiceps (8.2%), t. ovis (2%), dipylidium caninum (2%) and spirura spp. (2%). no significant difference was noticed between the sam-pling areas, age and helminth infection. only a significant difference was ob-served for prevalence of t. multiceps in wolf (25%), dog (21.4%), jackal and fox (0%) respectively ( p < 0.05). conclusion: the canids in chaharmahal and bakhtiari harbor several para-sites that some kind of them have zoonotic importance and may pose a threat to community health specially in rural areas.