Tehran University of Medical Sciences Iranian Journal of Parasitology 1735-7020 8 1 2013 03 15 107 113 EN I Mobedi Dept. of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. M Zare-Bidaki Immunology of Infectious Diseases Research Center (IIDRC), Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. Mr Siavashi Department of Medical Parasitology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran. Sr Naddaf Department of Medical Parasitology, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran. Eb Kia Dept. of Medical Parasitology and Mycology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. M Mahmoudi Dept. of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 2015 10 14   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. https://ijpa.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijpa/article/view/518 https://ijpa.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijpa/article/download/518/400