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

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.