Coenurosis is a debilitating disease caused by the larval stage of Taenia multiceps. The larval stage of T.
multiceps appears in two cerebral and non-cerebral forms known as Coenurus cerebralis and Coenurus
gaigeri,respectively. This leads to the hypothesis that there are genetic intraspecific variabilities within
this species. Molecular analysis in the present study showed that C. cerebralis and C. gaigeri were 100%
genetically identical based on exonic region of enolase (ENO) gene and both mitochondrial (cox1 and
nad1) markers. In addition, an intronic mutation at ENO gene (position: 1171) was detected in the Iranian
C. cerebralis. The phylogenetic analyses based on the ENO, cox1, nad1 sequence data also suggest that T.
gaigeri may not be distinct from T. multiceps and there is only one single valid species within T. multiceps.
