differential detection of echinococcus spp. copro-dna by nested-pcr in domestic and wild definitive hosts in moghan plain, iran.

background: despite echinococcus granulosus , there are merely two old reports of e. multilocularis in-fection among iranian canids of moghan plain, the only area known endemic for the species. we detected specific dna markers in fecal samples by pcr (copro-pcr) for differential diagnosis of echinococcus species in living canids. methods: totally 144 fecal samples from domestic dogs, red foxes and a golden jackal were exam-ined for genus-specific echinococcus coproantigens using elisa. forty two positive or ambiguous samples were further examined for echinococcus species-specific dna markers by two different set of nested-pcr. results: twenty five out of 144 (17.4%) animals were contaminated with e. granulosus including 14 (23.7%) domestic dogs, 10 (11.9%) red foxes and one (100%) golden jackal. but none of them har-boured e. multilocularis species-specific copro-dna. the overall prevalence of e. granulosus and e. multilocularis infections in canids of the area was estimated to be 17.4% and 0.0%, respectively. there was a significant relation between the results of copro-pcr and ca-elisa. conclusion: the lack of e. multilocularis infection, compared to previous reports may be due to the differences in used diagnostic methods and/or recently limited territories of wild canids and altered their food resources in this particular area.