Table 1.

Characteristics of studies included in the meta-analysis

Author	Publication year	Years of study	City or Province/Region	Diagnostic method	Sample source	Types food/animal species/Human	Study design	Sample size	L. monocytogenes	Predominant serotypes	L. innocua	Total	Ref
Firouzi et al.	2000	UN	Shiraz/South	Culture	Human	Slaughter houses	Cross sectional	130	0	–	0	3	6
Akhondzadeh Basti et al.	2004	UN	Tehran and Guilan/North	Culture	Food	Fresh fish, salted and smoked fish	Cross sectional	120	4	4b	–	–	7
Moshtaghi et al.	2007	2005	Shahrekord/Central	Culture	Food	Raw milk	Cross sectional	500	8	4b	3	11	8
Rahimi et al.	2008	2006–2007	Isfahan/Central	Culture	Animal	Cattle	Cross sectional	200	6	–	–	–	9
Jalali et al.	2008	2003–2005	Isfahan/ Central	PCR	Food	Meat, diary, vegetables products ready to eat food	Cross sectional	461	7	–	13	27	4
Jamshidi et al.	2009	2002–2003	Bandar Abbas/South	Serology	Human	‘Spontaneous abortion, control group	Case-control study	450	124	–	–	–	10
Jami et al.	2010	2008	Mashhad/Northeast	PCR	Food	Raw milk	Cross sectional	100	4	–	–	–	11
Rahimi et al.	2010	2007–2009	Isfahan/Central	PCR	Food	Milk,dairy products	Cross sectional	594	18	–	32	55	12
Mahmoodi et al.	2010	UN	Noorabad/South	Culture	Food	Raw milk, White cheese, yoghurt	Cross sectional	360	6	–	–	–	13
Lotfollahi et al.	2011	2009–2010	Tehran/North	Culture	Human	Spontaneous abortions	Cross sectional	100	9	–	–	–	14
Rahimi et al.	2011	UN	Tehran/North	Culture	Human	Pregnant mothers	Cross sectional	512	5	–	–	–	15
Rahimi et al.	2011	2009–2010	Isfahan and Shahrekord/Central	PCR	Food	Sea food	Cross sectional-	264	5	–	15	20	16
Ghasemian Safaei et al.	2011	2008	Shahrekord/Central	Culture	Food	Eggs	Cross sectional	100	0	–	–	–	17
Goudarzi et al.	2012	2011	Karaj/North	PCR	Human	Women with septic abortion	Cross sectional	87	12	–	–	–	18
Fallah et al.	2012	2010–2011	Shahrekord/Central	PCR	Food	Poultry product	Cross sectional	402	52	4b, 1/2a, 1/2b, 1/2c	62	134	2
Zarei et al.	2012	UN	Ahvaz/Southwest	PCR	Food	Raw/fresh,frozen, and ready-to-eat (RTE) seafood	Cross sectional	245	2	–	–	–	19
Hosseinzadeh et al.	2012	2009	Shiraz/South	PCR	Animal	Poultry flocks	Cross sectional	100	7	–	–	–	20
Safarpoor Dehkordi et al.	2012	2011	Various parts of Iran	Real-Time PCR	Food	Milk	Cross sectional-	596	69	–	–	–	21
					Animal	Vaginal swab/Urine samples		1575	158
Rahimi et al.	2012	2009–2010	Chahar Mahal & Bakhtiyari/Central and South	Culture and PCR	Food	Dairy products	Cross sectional	290	5	–	14	21	22
Rahimi et al.	2012	2010–2011	Various parts of Iran	PCR	Food	Raw meats	Cross sectional	1107	27	–	98	141	23
Seifi et al.	2012	2009–2010	North and west	PCR	Animal	Broiler fl ocks	Cross sectional	490	44	–	–	–	24
Fallah et al.	2013	2011–2012	Shahrekord/ Central	PCR	Food	Raw and RTE seafood product	Cross sectional	462	35	1/2a, 4b, 1/2c, 1/2b, 4c	–	–	25
Jamali et al.	2013a	2008–2010	Tehran/North	PCR	Food	Raw milk	Cross sectional	446	18	1/2a, 3a; 1/2c, 3c; 4b, 4d, 4e	48	83	26
Jamali et al.	2013b	2008–2010	Tehran/North	PCR	Food	Milk	Cross sectional	207	17	(4b, 4d or 4e), (1/2a or 3a), (1/2b, 3b or 7), (1/2c or 3c)	3	21	27
Sohrabi et al.	2013	UN	Isfahan/Central	Culture	Food	Poultry meat	Cross sectional	52	1	–	11	12	28
Vahedi et al.	2013	2011	Sari/North	Culture	Food	Milk	Cross sectional	200	0	–	–	–	29
Momtaz et al.	2013	2010–2011	Isfahan and Shahrekord/Central	PCR	Food	Fresh fish/shrimp samples	Cross sectional	300	18	4b, 1/2b, 1/2a	2	24	30
Salehian et al.	2013	2012	Sari/North	Culture	Food	Traditional ice cream	Cross sectional	50	1	–		–	31
Zarei et al.	2013	UN	Ahvaz/ Southwest	PCR	Food	Beef, buffalo and lamb meats	Cross sectional	210	7	–	–	–	32
Akya et al.	2013	UN	Kermanshah/West	Culture	Food	Dairy, meat, products,RTE	Cross sectional	530	3	–	56	66	33
Shakib et al.	2013	UN	Lorestan/West	PCR	Human	Pregnant women	Cross sectional	100	0	–	–	–	34
Rahimi et al.	2014	2010–2011	Fars and Khuzestan/South and Southwest	PCR	Food	Bulk milk, camel, Water, buffalo, ovine, caprine,	Cross sectional	260	7	–	13	27	3
Eslami et al.	2014	2012–2013	Tehran/North	PCR	Human	Women with abortion	Cross sectional	96	16	–	–	–	35
Alidoosti et al.	2014	2012	Isfahan/Central	Culture	Animal	domestic dogs		92	1	1/2b	–	–	36
Jamali et al.	2014	2008–2010	Tehran/North	Culture	Animal	Duck, goose intestinal contents	Cross sectional	471	19	–	5	58	37
Moosavy et al.	2014	UN	Tabriz/Northwest	Culture	Food	Raw milk	Cross sectional	18	9	–	–	–	38
Haghi et al.	2015	2014	Zanjan/West	PCR	Food	Bovine milk, ovine milk	Cross sectional	60	0	–	–	–	39
Haghroosta et al.	2015	UN	Ahvaz/ Southwest	Serologic	Human	Pregnant women with spontaneous abortion and healthy pregnant women	Cross sectional	180	43	–	–	–	40
Jamali et al.	2015	2012–2014	Mazandaran/North	PCR	Food	Raw fish	Cross sectional	488	104	1/2a, 4b, 1/2b	34	37	41
Soltan Dallal et al.	2015	2013	Tehran/North	Culture	Food	Vegetables, salads	Cross sectional	200	1	–	–	48	42
Mashak et al.	2015	2011–2012	Tehran/North	Culture	Food	Fresh, frozen meats	Cross sectional	410	115	1/2a, 4b, 4c, 3b	–	–	43
Mansouri-Najand et al.	2015	2011	Kerman/Central	PCR	Food	Raw milk	Cross sectional	100	5	–	–	–	44
Pourkaveh et al.	2016	2015	Tehran/North	PCR	Human	Women with spontaneous abortion	Cross sectional	317	54	–	–	–	45
Abdollahzadeh et al.	2016	2014–2015	Karaj and Tehran/North	PCR	Food	Fish, shrimp, RTE seafood	Cross sectional	201	5	1/2b, 3b, 7, 1/2a, 3a	–	18	46
Pournajaf et al.	2016	2012–2015	Tehran/North	PCR	Human	Patients with spontaneous abortions	Cross sectional	170	14	–	–	–	47
					Food	Dairy products/meat,		317	20
					Animal	Domestic animals		130	12
Zeinali et al.	2017	2013	Mashhad/North east	PCR	Animal	Fresh chicken carcasses	Cross sectional	200	36	–	23	80	48
Lotfollahi et al.	2017	2013–2015	Tabriz/North west	PCR	Food	Sausage, milk, cheese, chicken, meat	Cross sectional	267	8	(1/2c or 3c), (4b, 4d or 4e), (1/2a or 3a)	–	–	49
					Human	Pregnant woman with a abortion		125	11
					Animal	Goat and sheep carcasses		50	3