DETECTION OF PARASITES CONTAMINATING RAW CONSUMABLE VEGETABLES IN ASSIUT CITY, ASSIUT GOVERNORATE, EGYPT | ||||
| Journal of the Egyptian Society of Parasitology | ||||
| Article 11, Volume 50, Issue 3, December 2020, Page 557-564 PDF (1.12 MB) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jesp.2020.131086 | ||||
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| Authors | ||||
| AYA A. AHMED1; FATMA G. SAYED2; LAMIA A. GALAL2; TAGHREED ISMAIL3; MONA M. GABER2 | ||||
| 1Department of Clinical Pathology | ||||
| 2Assiut Police Hospital, Department of Parasitology | ||||
| 3Public Health and Community Medicine | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| Vegetables are a major way for the transmission of human parasites, especially those that are consumed raw and or not properly washed. The leafy vegetables act as a reservoir host for these parasites or act as a critical intermediate host for some parasites encysted to complete their life cycle. The study aimed to evaluate the extent of parasitic contamination of various raw consumed vegetables available commercially in Assiut City. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2017 & 2018, where a total of 240 samples were collected (40 samples from each of Watercress, Radish, Parsley, Coriander, Green onion, and Lettuce). A direct simple washing technique available to households was used to recover parasites in each plant. Parasitic contamination rate was calculated. The overall parasites were 202/240 (84.1%). Parsley was the highly contaminated vegetable whereas Lettuce was the least contaminated. The most encountered contaminating parasite was Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts 76.25% (183/240) most frequent in radish (38/40), while Isospora sp. was the least detected one (2.1%). Parasites were viable only in 50% of tested samples. The high percent of vegetable contamination detected by this study urge other alternative methods for farming, irrigation and washing in the local community. | ||||
| Keywords | ||||
| Assiut City; Raw green vegetables; Zoonotic parasites; Viability; Infectivity | ||||
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