Int J Infect. 2018 April; 5(2):e13218. Published online 2018 April 28. doi: 10.5812/iji.13218. Research Article Coenurus serialis in Northeastern Iran: A Probable Danger to Human Amin Moshiri, 1 Seyed Aliakbar Shamsian, 2 Fariba Berenji, 2 Abbas Jadidoleslami, 2 and Elham Moghaddas 2,* 1 Department of Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran 2 Department of Parasitology and Mycology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran * Corresponding author: Elham Moghaddas, PhD, Department of Parasitology and Mycology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran. Tel/Fax: +98-5138002401-3, E-mail: moghaddase@mums.ac.ir Received 2017 May 14; Accepted 2017 September 19. Abstract Background: Coenurosis is a zoonotic disease caused by the larval stage of Taenia multiceps or Taenia serialis species. Objectives: The current study aimed at reporting the entity of Coenurus serialis in Iran. Methods: The five dead rabbits found in Sarakhs city, Northeastern Iran, were inspection carefully. Coenurus serialis cysts recovered from their muscles were inoculated orally into a four-month-old Spitz/Terrier dog. Results: Based on the current study, 40% of the inspected rabbits in Northeastern Iran had C. serialis. The eggs appeared in the feces 58 days post-inoculation (dpi). Cestodes length was 15 - 25 cm and the total number of scolex hooks was 30 ± 1. The mean length of large and small hooks was 140 and 90 μm, respectively. Discussion: Taenia multiceps and T. serialis in dogs were morphologically indistinguishable in the current study. The disease exists in Northeastern Iran in animals and is the potential danger as a zoonotic disease. The current study established the first experimental infection of C. serialis in Iran. Neurosurgeons should consider the probability of the disease in this region. Keywords: Dog, Rabbit, Iran, Experimental Infection, Taenia serialis 1. Background Taenia serialis (Taenia antartica) is already recorded in Europe, Africa, and North America (1). Canids including wolves, foxes, dogs, and coyotes are the definitive hosts (2); whereas, lagomorphs including both hares and rabbits are the usual intermediate hosts (3). The infections are also found in cats, humans, baboons, mandrill, squirrels, and other rodents (4). The intermediate hosts including hu- mans are infected by eggs ingestion of dog’s feces. Coenu- rus serialis (the larval phase of the T. serialis) settle in central nervous system (CNS). Six human cases, also seven cases of fatal cerebral coenurosis in cats were reported from Amer- ica (5). One breast cyst of T. serialis larvae was detected in a 38-year-old Caucasian female. Cysts in human were pre- sented in the CNS, muscles, and subcutaneous tissue (6). Coenurus serialis cysts in human are rare and only about 100 cases (C. multiceps and C. serialis) were recorded until 2008 (7) with the most cases from Africa (8). In rabbits, most of the Coenuri are found in lumbar and hind legs muscles, rarely in jaw muscles (9). 2. Objectives The current report describes the presence of coenurus, believed to be T. serialis, in the muscles of wild rabbits and provides the description of coenurus experimental infec- tion in a dog. There was no published data of the preva- lence of this parasite in Iran. The current study aimed at re- porting the existence of these zoonotic parasites in North- eastern Iran and describing the characteristics of T. serialis in the definitive host in comparison with those of T. multi- ceps. 3. Methods 3.1. Wild Rabbit Sarakhs geographic coordinate is 36°32 ′ 42 ′′ N 61°09 ′ 28 ′′ E with cold winters and warm-dry summers influenced by Gharaghoroom Desert. It is located in Kho- rasan province in Northeastern Iran (Figure 1). In 2015, five dead rabbits were found during three weeks. All the muscles were inspected carefully. Copyright © 2018, International Journal of Infection. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited