Habitually, gills of cyprinid fish have deemed the natural habitats of Dactylogyrus spp. worldwide. Taxonomically, this common monogenean ectoparasite belongs to the Dactylogyridae family. It could be mentioned that the current study is the first comprehensive attempt at highlighting the host specificity of this flatworm parasite that affects Iraqi freshwater fish. Moreover, community components of the parasite and diversity dynamics are also elaborated upon. A total of 681 fish belonging to 18 species (Cyprinidae family) were collected in the Lesser Zab River from August 2016 to July 2017. The fish were examined monthly for diversity fluctuation and abundance in communities of gill Dactylogyrids species, host specificity, fish length, and fish weight. The results revealed the presence of 21 Dactylogyrid species, including 10 specialists and 11 generalists. Among them, the highest richness mean (252) was documented for D. carassobarbi, while the highest prevalence percentage (44.44%) was recorded for D. pavlovskyi. On the other hand, the highest mean community abundance (35.7) and mean parasite community species richness (464) were observed for D. kersini. There were no significant differences in host specificity for infested fish total lengths and weights. Regarding seasonal variations, the highest Dactylogyrid species richness was in March 2017. Most species abundance was reported on gill numbers II and III for both sides.

Infestation rate with polyplax spinulosa (burmeister, 1839) among certain laboratory albino rats (rattus norvegicus) in relation to different washing agents in two Erbil city universities

It has been narrated and postulated that various plants were utilized as therapeutic agents for the first time by the distinct primate "Neanderthal" (Homo neanderthalensis) between 60,000-80,000 years BC in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (Agelarakis, 1993; Sommer, 1999; Hamad, 2012). Records attribute the use of medicinal plants to prehistoric Mesopotamian Civilizations (land between the two rivers of Tigris and Euphrates), in particular the Sumerians who dwelt modern over 5,000 years ago (Levetin and McMahon, 2003). It is noteworthy to mention that exploitation of herbal remedies was practiced by Chinese herbalists (Ergil et al., 2002) and Indian botanists (Aggarwal et al., 2007) around 2700 BC and 1900 BC, respectively. Ancient Greeks and Romans as well as Muslim scientists have also contributed to the use of phytomedicines (Iqbal et al., 2001). The recent decades have witnessed a distinct development in herbology by employing modern pharmacological techniques

The current study is the first phylogenetic and secondary RNA structure analysis of Dactylogyrus species parasitising gill filaments of Iraqi cyprinid fishes. Most previous phylogenetic studies have targeted on primary DNA sequence data. Nevertheless, RNA secondary configuration is principally helpful in systematics since they comprise features that do not appear in the primary sequence and provide morphological information. The primary objective was molecular-based identification of Dactylogyrids species using evolutionary tree and secondary RNA structure prediction.