Original Article Morphological and Molecular Survey of Naegleria spp. in Water Bodies Used for Recreational Purposes in

Background: Naegleria spp. is a free-living amoeba of which some species in-cluding N. fowleri and N. australeinsis are highly pathogenic in human and animals. These widespread amoebae could be found in different environmental sources particularly in aquatic resources of tropical and subtropical regions. The most important source of infection is via recreational water contact. Due to the lack of thorough research regarding species of Naegleria spp. in aquatic sources, the present study was conducted. Methods: In the present study, 60 samples were collected from recreational wa-ter resources of Rasht city, Guilan province, north of Iran. After filtering and culturing the samples, plates were examined by microscopic method and accord-ing to the page criteria. DNA of vahlkampfiid-positive samples were then ex-tracted using phenol-chlorophorm method. Amoebae genus was identified by targeting the ITS-region and sequencing based-approaches. Results: Nine (15%) samples out of a 60 total samples were positive fo