Please cite this article in press as: Beiromvand, M., et al., Prevalence of zoonotic intestinal parasites in domestic and stray dogs in a rural area of Iran. PREVET (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2012.09.009 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model PREVET-3235; No. of Pages 6 Preventive Veterinary Medicine xxx (2012) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Preventive Veterinary Medicine j ourna l ho me pag e: ww w.elsevi er.com/locate/prev etmed Short communication Prevalence of zoonotic intestinal parasites in domestic and stray dogs in a rural area of Iran Molouk Beiromvand a , Lame Akhlaghi a , Seyed Hossein Fattahi Massom b , Ahmad Reza Meamar a , Abbas Motevalian c , Hormozd Oormazdi a , Elham Razmjou a,∗ a Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran b Department of Thoracic Surgery, Ghaem Educational, Research and Treatment Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran c Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 2 April 2012 Received in revised form 7 September 2012 Accepted 16 September 2012 Keywords: Dog Taenia spp. Echinococcus spp. Toxocara spp. Toxascaris leonina Zoonoses Chenaran a b s t r a c t Certain zoonotic parasites are enteropathogens in dogs that cause serious human disease such as cystic echinococcosis, human alveolar echinococcosis, visceral larva migrans, and ocular larva migrans. This study investigated the prevalence of intestinal parasites in dogs in the Chenaran County, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran. Sampling was carried out ran- domly in 17 villages from November 2009 to January 2010. Seventy-seven fecal samples from 28 domestic and 49 stray dogs were examined using sieving/flotation and modi- fied Ziehl-Neelsen staining. Intestinal parasites were found in 51 of the 77 (66%) dogs most common being Toxascaris leonina (29%, 22/77), Toxocara spp. (25%, 19/77), Eimeria spp. (19%, 15/77), Taenia/Echinococcus spp. (18%, 14/77), Sarcocystis spp. (17%, 13/77), and Dicrocoelium dendriticum (14%, 11/77). Lower infection rates of parasites were observed for Trichuris vulpis (6%, 5/77), Cryptosporidium spp. (5%, 4/77), and Physaloptera spp. (3%, 2/77). Prevalence of infection by Dipylidium caninum, Capillaria spp., Cystoisospora spp., and hookworms was similar (1%, 1/77). This study is the first report of the prevalence of intesti- nal parasites of domestic and stray dogs in Chenaran County, Northeast Iran. The higher prevalence of zoonotic intestinal parasites such as Toxascaris leonina, Toxocara spp. and Tae- nia/Echinococcus spp. compared to other parasites indicates the need for control programs to minimize the risk of transmission of zoonotic disease, particularly cystic echinococcosis, alveolar echinococcosis, visceral larva migrans, and ocular larva migrans to people living in these areas. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Dogs are reservoirs, carriers, and transmitters of several zoonotic intestinal parasites that are consid- ered serious problems for humans (Xhaxhiu et al., 2011). Some dog intestinal parasites, e.g. Echinococ- cus granulosus, Echinococcus multilocularis, Toxocara canis, Ancylostoma spp., Dipylidium caninum, Giardia spp., and ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 21 88622653; fax: +98 21 88622653. E-mail addresses: erazmjou@tums.ac.ir, elhamrazmjou@yahoo.com (E. Razmjou). Cryptosporidium spp., through their oral–fecal transmission cycle, are a potential source of infection in humans and wild or domestic animals (Soriano et al., 2010). Infected domes- tic and stray dogs can contaminate the environment with helminth eggs and larvae as well as protozoan cysts and oocysts (Okoye et al., 2011). A growing body of evidence suggests that in rural areas of Iran, human association with dogs potentially facili- tates the transmission of zoonotic parasitic diseases of canine origin such as echinococcosis to humans (Eslami and Hosseini, 1998; Dalimi et al., 2006; Ranjbar-Bahadori et al., 2008; Harandi et al., 2011). In some rural areas for example, domestic dogs can be the definitive host, not 0167-5877/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2012.09.009