The present invention relates to the field of detection of intestinal parasites from patients, food or environmental samples, preferably from fecal samples. In particular, the present invention provides a
polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based
assay for detecting intestinal parasitic infections, in particular infections with parasitic species selected from the group consisting of: Hymenolepis nana, Hymenolepis diminuta, Fasciolopsis buski, Encephalitozoon spp (such as E. intestinalis, E. cuniculi and E. hellem), Enterocytozoon bieneusi, Enterobius vermicularis, Diphyllobothrium latum, Diphyllobothrium nihonkaiense,
Schistosoma mansoni mansoni, Blastocystis hominis, Ancylostoma duodenale and liver worms (such as
Clonorchis sinensis, Opisthorchis spp. and Metorchis spp.). The present invention further provides materials for the methods of the present invention, such as primers, primer pairs and probes. Preferably, the methods of the present invention are
multiplex real-time
fluorescence quantitative PCR assays for rapid determination of clinically important intestinal parasites.