Derbendikhan reservoir is located on the south east of Sulaimani province between longitude 35° 6' 35"N and latitude, 45° 41' 20" E, and it is the second largest reservoir in the Iraqi Kurdistan region at an altitude of about 485 m above sea level. More than twenty genera of fishes are endemic to this reservoir, Silurus triostegus is one of them, which was selected to determine the amount of heavy metals that accumulated in the muscle tissue. The results revealed that the metals were accumulated in the following descending order (Fe

This study aimed to detect Escherichia coli O157:H7 in samples from patients with diarrhea, sheep milk, and sheep drinking water by growth on selective media, biochemical tests, latex agglutination test, and PCR technique. During the period from November 2008 to May 2009, a total of 340 samples were collected; stools diarrhoeic patients (125), healthy sheep feces (125), milk (45), and sheep drinking water samples (45). Samples were screened for the presence of non-sorbitol fermenting colonies (NSF) on sorbitol MacConkey agar supplemented with cefixime and potassium tellurite (CT-SMAC). Out of the 340 samples, 58 (46.4%) stool from diarrhea, 98 (78.4%) from sheep feces, 19 (42.2%) milk, and 17 (37.7%) drinking water were nonsorbitol fermenting. E. coli isolates were serotyped as E. coli O157:H7 by latex agglutination test, 3 (5.7%) isolates of stool from diarrhea patients, 7 (7.3%) isolates of sheep feces, 2 (11.1%) isolates of milk, and none of drinking water samples were positive. All latex agglutination positive isolates were positive to PCR test except one isolate from sheep feces. PCR positive isolates were produced enterohemolysin on sheep blood agar, and were found resistant to at least 3 antibiotics. The highest rate of E. coli O157:H7 isolation was observed in April (7.6%) followed by December (4.7%) , while those of sheep feces showed the highest rate in March (10%) followed by April (8.6%).