WITHDRAWN: First record of ciliophora (Orchitophryidae) isolated from CSF samples of patients with meningitis in Thi-Qar province south of Iraq

In September 2020 when we were investigating about opportunistic free living amoeba in patients with meningitis in Thi –Qar province south of Iraq, throughout examination the CSF which was cultured on NN Agar medium. It was surprisingly we found the ciliates protozoa (Orchitophryidae) in both stages, vegetative and cystic, after that the ciliates were isolated and cultured in vitro and then morphological, molecular and virulence characterizations were studies. The results of morphological study revealed that these ciliates were similar to Mesanophrys sp. whereas the sequence of rDNA of studied ciliate with accession numbers being given. in NCBI LC621170.1 was show (86.04%) homology identity to Mesanophrys sp. 18S rRNA gene (accession number MN260367.1). but show (98.56%) and (97.92%) homology identity to Orchitophrydiae 18S rRNA gene (accession number EF023919.1 and EF023549.1), that may be this ciliates in our study is a new species for Mesanophrys. In addition experimental infection confirmed that Mesanophrys like ciliates was the pathogen that infected human. In summary this study represent the first record of the ciliophora Orchitophryidae (Mesanophrys like ciliates) as a human pathogen from Thi-Qar province / Iraq.