Parasitic Contamination of Vegetables From Some Markets In South-Western Nigeria

Intestinal parasitic infections are among the most prevalent clinical and subclinical diseases of significant in tropical regions of the world. Fresh vegetables are important healthy diet, however in recent years there has been an increased number of reported cases of food-borne intestinal illness linked to fresh vegetables. A total of 120 batches of different vegetables were randomly selected from open markets of three States-Lagos, Oyo and Kwara. The samples were processed using sedimentation by centrifugation method and examined using light microscope for ova, cysts and larva of intestinal parasites. Thirty-seven (30.3%) of the vegetables were positive for intestinal parasites in which “Shoko” (Celosis) and Water-leaf (Talinium triangure) had the highest of 66.7% and 50% respectively parasitic contamination while Water-melon (Citrullus langtus) has the least intestinal parasitic contamination (8.3%). Parasites detected were ova of Ascaris lumbricoides (12.5%), ova of Hookworm (13.3%), ova of Taenia spp (3.3%) and cysts of Balantidium coli (0.83%). The intensity of parasitic contamination of vegetable were high and the same for all the selected towns; Ibadan (30%), Ilorin (50%) and Lagos (30%). The implication and public health importance of vegetable contamination with infective stage of intestinal parasites was discussed. Keywords : Vegetables, Contamination, Intestinal parasites, Markets