member of family taeniidae is the most important cestodes in term of their significance for human and animal health .
adult worm occupy the small intestine of carnivores and a variety of animals act as intermediate hosts .
many species of taenia have been described from canine and feline in iran ( 15 ) .
taenia acinonyxi infects leopard ( panthera pardus ) and cheetah ( acinonyx jubatus venaticus ) .
the intermediate hosts are not definitely known , but cysticerci with rostellar hooks resembling those of the adults were found in the muscles of african herbivores ( 6 , 7 ) .
possible intermediaries are impala ( aepyceros melampus ) , sable antelope ( hippotragus niger ) , gerenuk ( litocranius walleri ) , gemsbok ( oryx gazella ) , grey duiker ( sylvicapra grimmia ) , african buffalo ( syncerus caffer ) , warthog ( phacochoerus aethiopicus ) and other wild ruminants ( 7 ) .
the final hosts of this species usually are limited to leopards and cheetahs in sub - saharan and sub - sahelian zones in africa ( 8 , 9 ) . in this case
the asian cheetah known as iranian panther ( scientific name : acinonyx jubatus venaticus ) is a rare endangered species which only a few of them are found in iran .
results of the latest research estimated that an average of 70 to 100 panthers exist in khartooran of shahrood , naybandan of tabas and darre anjir of bafgh in iran .
zarand , naeen and jajarm are other parts of iran in which this species may be found as well ( 10 , 11 ) . a four years old female cheetah with a body - weight about 32 kg , was killed in a road accident by a truck in abbas abad ( biarjamand),the county around of shahrood city in semnan province ( latitude 36.083 , longitude 58.967 and elevation 1238 , east semnan province ) . two days after the accident , the carcass of acinonyx jubatus venaticus was autopsied and the internal organs were transferred to the laboratory of department of veterinary parasitology at university of tehran .
the content of digestive tract including feces and mucus passed through a sieve ( mesh 70 ) to remove debris .
the worms were then washed off the sieve and preserved in 70% ethanol . in this study
just five cestodes were isolated from the small intestine and in inspection of other internal organs no helminth was found . for a definitive identification ,
mature and gravid segments of worms were stained by carmine acid method ( 12 ) .
dissected rostellum was mounted in polyvinyl lactophenol and sufficient pressure applied to the coverslip to flatten the hook .
the number , shape and arrangement of rostellar hook and morphological characteristics of the mature and gravid segments were studied .
the worms were white , thick bodied , and around 2327 cm in length ( fig .
the rostellum well developed and armed with a double rows ( 3540 ) of hooks of typical taenia shape.the larger hooks were 211230 m ( mean 218 m ) and the smallers were 126148 m ( mean 132 m)(fig .
the length of large hooks of t. acinonyxi was higher than t. hydatigena , t. multiceps and t. gaigeri but was smaller than t. taeniaeformis and t. endothoracicus ( fig .
each of the mature segments had a single lateral genital pore that randomly occurred on either right side of the segment or the left side .
the aporal lobe of the ovary was usually larger than the poral lobe and the vaginal sphincter was absent .
testes were in one horizontal layer , near the anterior margin of the segment and extending posterior to the level of the vitelline gland .
eggs could be easily recognized as those of a taenia through examination under a microscope , which revealed the typical brown - shelled taeniid eggs .
based on morphological characteristics along with diagnostic keys the cestodes were diagnosed as taenia acinonyxi ( 6 , 13 , 14 ) .
this is the first report of t. acinonyxi of from acinonyx jubatus venaticus from iran .
whole taenia acinonyxi ( unstained ) obtained from intestine of asian cheetah scolex of t. acinonyxi with two rows of hooks comparison shape and length of taenia acinonyxi with other taenia spp .
 the asian cheetah is known as iranian panther . a four years old female cheetah was killed in a road accident by a truck in abbas abad ( biarjamand ) county around shahrood city in semnan province , central part of iran . 
 two days after the accident the carcass of animal was autopsied and only five cestodes were obtained from its intestine . in inspection of other organs no other helminth was observed . 
 cestod samples were fixed and stained by carmine acid . 
 characterization of the cestodes using morphological standard key , identified the cestodes as taenia acinonyxi . 
Introduction
Case report