Prevalence of Intestinal Parasites in Raw Vegetables Consumed in Soran City, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Intestinal parasitic infections are one of the most important health problems. Although fresh vegetables are considered as a vital element of a healthy diet, they are a potential source of human intestinal parasitic infections during production, collection, transportation, preparation and consumption. The present study was carried out to determine and detecting the parasitological contaminations of fresh vegetables sold at different open-aired markets in Soran city, Iraq. A total of 225 raw vegetable samples were examined by sedimentation technique after washing the samples with normal saline. Of the 225 samples, 109 (48.4%) were microscopically positive for intestinal parasites. Particularly, a high rate of contamination was recorded in cress (Lepidium sativum) with 71.1%. However, the least contaminated sample was lettuce (Lactuca sativa) with 26.6%. The most encountered parasite was Taenia spp. egg (24%), whereas hookworms (4%) were the least detected ones and 34.6% of the samples harbored poly-parasitic contamination. Since, the results emphasize the fresh vegetables are potential sources of transmission for intestinal parasites in central markets of Soran city, strict hygienic measures should always be adopted to avoid parasitic contamination. Untreated sewage and the manure used by greengrocer as fertilizer can be implicated in vegetable contamination.