en تخصصي Special Original article Original article <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Background:</strong> Toxoplasmosis is one of the most prevalent parasitic infections among humans and animals which caused by <em>Toxoplasma gondii. </em>This study was carried out to detection and identification of <em>T. gondii</em> in pregnant women population of Urmia, Iran.<br> <strong>Methods:</strong> This cross-sectional study was done from August 2015 to March 2016. Totally, 620 pregnant women referred to the urban and rural healthcare centers of Urmia were studied. IgG and IgM specific for <em>T. gondii</em> were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The demographic and risk factors data were collected by questionnaires. All included women completed the consent letter of agreement. The identification of <em>T. gondii </em>was performed using nested Polymerase Chain Reaction. The statistical analysis was done using SPSS 16.0.<br> <strong>Results:</strong> Out of 620 pregnant women, 114 (18.4%) had specific IgG and three (0.5%) had specific IgM for <em>T. gondii.</em> Statistical analysis showed significant relation between the IgG level and age (<em>p</em><0.05). We did not find any significant relation (<em>p</em>>0.05) between the level of &shy;<em>T</em>. <em>gondii</em> specific antibodies with career, education, and vegetable and meat consumption habits. Molecular identification of <em>T. gondii </em>showed type I in isolates obtained from three newborns of IgM-positive mothers.<br> <strong>Conclusion:</strong> In order to prevent of the disease in newborns, screening of pregnant women and healthcare education are suggested.<br> <br> <strong>DOI:</strong></span><a href="http://jfqhc.ssu.ac.ir/article-1-392-en.html"> 10.29252/jfqhc.5.1.17</a></div> Toxoplasma, Pregnant Women, Risk Factors, Iran 17 23 http://jfqhc.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-46-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 A. Eshratkhah Mohammadnejad No Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran G. Eslami eslami_g2000@yahoo.com Yes Research Center for Food Hygiene and Safety, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran F. Shamsi No Department of Biostatistics, School of Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran A. Pirnejad No Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran A. Samie No Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran J. Safabakhsh No Molecular Diagnostics Laboratories, Urmia healthcare centers, Urmia, Iran A. Sakhavand No Molecular Diagnostics Laboratories, Urmia healthcare centers, Urmia, Iran M. Elloumi No Laboratory of Technologies of Information and Communication and Electrical Engineering, University of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia