The study discussed here deals with the isolation of Aspergillus niger from palm dates, the formal and the most famous fruit in Iraq, to test and qualify this fungus isolate for its ability to produce citric acid. Submerged fermentation technique was used in the fermentation process. A.niger isolated from “Zahdi” Palme dates was used in the study of the fermentation kinetics to get the production efficiency of citric acid. Kinetics of CA production via fermentation by A. niger S11 was evaluated within 432 h fermentation time and under submerged conditions of 11% (w/v) sucrose, 5% (v/v) inoculum size, pH 4, 30 °C and 150 rpm. The maximum citric acid produced was (37.116 g/l). Kinetic criterions (product, exhaustion and growth rates “Cp/t, Cs/t, Cx/t”, yield coefficients “Yp/s, Yp/x, Yx/s”, and specific fermentation rate constants “qp, qs”) were studied and discussed to reach to a logical explanation of fermentation process.

Dipylidiasis is a zoonotic intestinal cestode disease caused by Dipylidium caninum. ‎The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of Dipylidium caninum infections ‎in dogs from Baghdad city. The study involved the impact of sexes, age, during nine months ‎‎(from January to October 2021) on dipylidiasis infection in pet and stray dogs. 108 faecal ‎samples were collected from (54 pets and 54 stray dogs) then examined for the detection of D. ‎caninum egg capsules and eggs using coprological diagnosis (flotation and sedimentation ‎methods) in the laboratory of parasitology / College of Veterinary Medicine, University of ‎Baghdad. The overall infection rate was 14.81% (16/108). The study revealed the infection rate ‎of D. caninum from pets and stray dogs was 9.26% (5/54), and 20.37% (11/54), respectively. ‎Infection rates in stray dogs were high during March, April, and May (12.5% for each month), ‎compared with pet dogs (0%, 6.25%, 6.25%) respectively, while in January, the rate of ‎infection was 0% in both types, significantly (P<0.05) during March. A significant difference ‎was recorded (P<0.01) between the sexes in both dog types, females recorded a higher 25% ‎‎(3/12) infection rate than males 19.05% (8/42) in stray dogs, compared to the females, 5.9% ‎‎(1/17) and males, 10.8% (4/37) in pet dogs, respectively. According to the age, a high infection ‎rate was found in stray dog adults (20.51%), while the infection rate was zero (0%) in pet dog ‎puppies, with a significant difference (p < 0.01) between the age groups in both types. The ‎results revealed that stray and pet dogs may play a larger role in the spread of zoonotic ‎dipylidiasis and that public health needs more concerted efforts to educate dog owners and ‎implement control programs to prevent the infective stage maturation by cutting life cycle of ‎intermediate hosts.