en تخصصي Special Original article Original article <p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><strong>Introduction: </strong>Hamburger is a popular type of fast foods consumed all over the world.<i> Sarcocystis </i>spp. is a zoonotic parasitic pathogen which endangers safety of meat and meat products. The present study describes the prevalence rate of <i>Sarcocystis </i>spp. in hamburgers in Yazd, Iran using PCR-RFLP<i>.</i> </span></span></p> <p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><strong>Materials and methods: </strong>Raw hamburger samples (100 traditional and 90 industrial) from central region of Iran, Yazd were randomly selected. The genomic DNA was extracted using salting out method. Detection and identification of <i>Sarcocystis </i>isolates was performed using PCR-RFLP. </span></span></p> <p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><strong>Results: </strong>The results showed that 77.9% of all tested hamburger samples were infected with <i>Sarcocystis</i> spp. The infection rate in the traditional hamburger (87%) was significantly (<i>p</i><0.05) higher than the industrial ones (67.8%). The rate of <i>S. cruzi</i>, <i>S. hirsuta</i> and <i>S. hominis</i> in the traditional hamburger samples, was 39%, 61% and 54% respectively while the rate of <i>S. cruzi</i>, <i>S. hirsuta</i> and <i>S. hominis</i> in the industrial hamburgers was 67.8%, 58.9% and 57.8%. <i>S. cruzi</i>, respectively. The rate was significantly (<i>p</i><0.05) higher in industrial hamburgers than in the traditional ones. No statistical association was found between percentage of meat content and the rate of contamination in the industrial hamburger (<i>p</i>>0.05). </span></span></p> <p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Having zoonotic significance, considerable infestation rate of <i>S. hominis</i> seems to be high in hamburgers of this region of Iran. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first of its own kind carried out in hamburger samples in Iran. </span></span></p> Sarcocystis, Prevalence, Molecular epidemiology, Meat products, Iran 15 20 http://jfqhc.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-14&slc_lang=en&sid=1 B. Hajimohammadi No Department of Food Hygiene and Safety, Faculty of Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran A. Dehghani No Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Faculty of Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran M. Moghadam Ahmadi No Department of Food Hygiene and Safety, Faculty of Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran G. Eslami eslami_g2000@yahoo.com Yes Department of Parasitology and Mycology, Faculty of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran A. Oryan No Department of Pathology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran A. Khamesipour No Center for Research and Training in Skin Diseases and Leprosy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran