Morphological and morphometric study of Echinococcus granulosus (metacestode) in Sulaimani Province/ Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Hydatid disease (echinococcosis) is a parasitic infection   caused by the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus with the global distribution. This disease is endemic in Iraq and Kurdistan Region with no strategy and long-term control plan. The strain identification of this parasite is essential to improve both monitoring and prevention of the disease. For this reason, the present on the morphological characterization of the larval stage of Echinococcus granulosus isolated from sheep, cattle, and human beings, was carried out in Sulaimani as an atempt to determine the polymorphism among echinococcus hooks isolated from diferent hosts. The morphometric of hooks were evaluated by (computerized morphometric) software. A significant difference was found in the blade length and width (guard) of the hook isolated from a different intermediate host of Echinococcus. This finding suggested that different strains of E. granulosus are responsible for animal and human infection in Kurdistan-Iraq.