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Cysticercus tenuicollis (C. tenuicollis) is the larval stage infection of Taenia hydatigena, a common tapeworm of dogs and other Canidae, which has a wide range of intermediate hosts including sheep, goat, cattle, deer, camel, horse, human and other wild ruminants, the disease spreads through a contaminated water, soil and food with feces of infected dogs or other carnivores, T. hydatigena lives in the intestinal of the definitive host (carnivores) and excretes a huge number of eggs with feces daily. The present study conducted to determine the prevalence rate and molecular characterization of C. tenuicollis among sheep and goats in Sulaimani province. A total of 14088 slaughtered animals were inspected postmortem from the new Sulaimani abattoir comprise, which involves 13395 sheep and 693 goats. The selected cysts were preserved in 70% Ethanol for DNA extraction and molecular study,  The mt-CO1 gene was amplified with a conventional polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the PCR product purified and DNA sequencing for reverse and forward strands was determined by a genetic analyzer, the obtained sequences aligned with the DNA sequences of T. hydatigena in Iran, Turkey and Palestine, which deposited in GenBank under the following accession number (JQ710588), (JN827307) and ( KM032284) respectively. The prevalence rate of C. tenuicollis was 2.63% in sheep and 2.58% in goats. This result shows no significant differences of C. tenuicollis between sheep and goats (p>0.05). The nucleotide sequence alignment of cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (CO 1) gene revealed that the amplified DNA fragment is belong to Taenia hydatigena and Echinococcus granulosus and the nucleotide sequences of T. hydatigena deposited in GenBank under accession number (MH638348). This finding concludes that the amplification of mt-CO1 gene cannot be depended on discriminate hydatid cyst and C. tenuicollis while the partial DNA sequences of mt-CO1 gene are significantly valuable to differentiate C. tenuicollis from hydatid cyst, which is completely different in the pathology and control.

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Hydatid disease (echinococcosis) is a parasitic infection caused by the larval stage ofEchinococcus 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.

The head louse (Pediculus humanus capits) is one of the common obligate ectoparasites blood-sucking, wingless, belonging to the order Phthiraptera, sub-order Anoplura which are specific parasites of a human being with the medical importance worldwide. This study carried out to estimate the prevalence of head pediculosis and its associated factors among refugees in Sulaimani province. Total of 11798 peoples participated in this study including 5056 male and 6742 female from five refuges campus in Sulaimani province, the direct inspection visually followed to detect head lice infestation (pediculosis). The overall prevalence in the current study was 1.12%, the infestation was significantly higher among female (1.78 %) than the male (0.24 %). The age significantly had an effect on the pediculosis; the higher rate of pediculosis was among children (1-5 years) than the other age groups although Pediculosis was significantly higher among low-level educational peoples (preparatory and primary). The family size, hair washing duration, length of hair and type of hair have the direct effect of the head louse infestation, while the significant association between scalp disease (Dandruff) and infestation rate of head lice was not observed. From this study, we conclude the prevalence of head lice has directly related to age, personal hygiene, and hair type, and the refugee's camps in Sulaimani province (Kurdistan-Iraq) need more health care and health awareness.

Eruca sativa, commonly known as rocket salad, is a popular vegetable to which a wide range of health benefits are attributed. This study aimed to examine the effects of the aqueous extract of E. sativa leaves on lipid profile and some minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, in blood of male albino mice under normal physiological condition. Two experiments were separately conducted, each with eighteen male albino mice divided into 3 equal groups, which included control, treated group (1), and treated group (2) which were orally administrated with 0, 0.2 and 0.4 mg/kg body weight, respectively, of the leaves extract for 28 days. In the first experiment, serum lipid profile, including cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL, LDL and VLDL, were estimated. In the second experiment, serum calcium and magnesium were estimated. The results showed that E. sativa have effects on lipid profile by decreasing cholesterol, triglyceride, and LDL levels, but increasing that of HDL. In addition, E. sativa increased the levels of both calcium and magnesium. This study concludes that E. sativa leaves exerts possibly beneficial effect on lipid profile and calcium and magnesium levels in albino male mice under normal conditions.

Land snails are crucial consumers in the terrestrial environment and beneficial significant bioindicators to evaluate the chemical impact in the ecosystem, especially on urban lands. The present study aimed to investigate the concentration of heavy metals such as As, Cr, Ni, Pb, and Zn in urban soil and study whether Eobania vermiculata acts as a bioindicator for heavy metal contamination in an urban area. Thirty soil and snail samples in triplicate from each sampling site were taken from the urban areas of Suliamani. After a microwave-assisted digestion procedure, every sample was analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry. Results showed that the concentration of chromium (Cr) in each snail sample was significantly high. The maximum Cr concentration (15.87 mg kg−1) was recorded in the snail sample collected from Ali Kamal Park, which was adjacent to a very crowded traffic road. The As concentration in snail samples ranged from 0.08 to 1.004 mg kg−1, and it was below the permissible limits. However, the concentrations of heavy metals in urban soil locations were below their background measurements, except for nickel (Ni) which was above the permissible limits. The safest site in the study area was Chaviland 1, while the most contaminated site was the Ha-wary Shar Park. The snails bioaccumulated metals in their tissues in the following order, Cr > Zn > Ni, and this bioaccumulation occurred more on the main road locations, which represented potentially contaminated places due to anthropogenic activities. Moreover, there was no correlation among the heavy metals within the soil samples when compared to the similar metals in the snail samples, due to the low concentration of heavy metals in soil, excluding Ni, from where the snail samples were collected. Consequently, the land snail, E. vermiculata, is an appropriate sentinel organism for some metals, mainly for Cr, and the bioindicator monitoring with this snail should be extended to mixtures of heavy metals, since such relationships frequently occur in soil.