How consumption of unwashed fresh vegetables continued to serve as transmission avenues for Intestinal parasites in man

The spiking rate of occurrence of food-borne parasitic diseases in developing countries calls for continuous public health surveillance. This study evaluated how consumption of unwashed vegetables serves as transmission routes for parasites. Two hundred vegetables (cabbage, carrot, tomato, cucumber, and green pepper) samples from Ikoko, Oja oba, Eyin Ogbe and Ojomu markets in Owo and Oja-Oba, Shasha, Nepa and Ijomu markets within Akure were examined for parasites using sedimentation techniques from April to July, 2019. Results revealed a cumulative positive prevalence rate of 61.5% for parasites. Cabbage had the highest prevalence of 87.5% and the least prevalence of 30% amongst the carrots. The food-borne protozoa and helminths parasites of different developmental stages (cysts, eggs and larvae) recovered in this study were Giardia lamblia, Balantidium coli, Entamoeba histolytica, Trichuris trichiura, Ascaris lumbricoides, hookworm, Strongyloides stercorali, Taenia spp., Enterobius vermicularis, Toxocara spp., Vampirolepis nana. The most common parasite was A. lumbricoides(21.3%) while the lowest prevalence rate was observed in Toxocara spp. and Vampirolepis nana(0.5%). It was observed that vegetables sampled from Owo markets appear to be more contaminated with most of the isolated parasites than samples from Akure markets with a significant difference (p>0.05). From the high parasitic load, there is the  need for monitoring the occurrence of gastrointestinal parasitic infections in the study areas as residents in the areas are at risk of contracting intestinal parasitic infections through consumption of raw salad vegetables. Keywords: Parasite, vegetable, prevalence, Akure, Ow