Parasitic Contamination of Raw Edible Vegetables in Hail Region, Saudi Arabia

摘要

Food borne diseases continue to be a common and serious threat to public health. Vegetables were widely reported to become contaminated with different parasitic stages in different places of the world. Transmission of intestinal parasites is mainly associated with parasitic contamination of food, drinking water, and hands.The current study aimed to determine the prevalence of parasitic contamination of raw edible vegetables in local vegetables markets of Hail region. The collection of samples was conducted during the whole period of November-December 2016.A total of 105collected vegetable samples were screened using sedimentation method. The overall parasitic contamination percentage was 70.5%.The most contaminated vegetables were Cabbage and beet, followed by Lettuce, Radish, Green onion, Tomato, Watercress and Green pepper, Cucumber, Parsley, and finally Carrot. The most abundant parasite was Giardia trophozoite, followed by larva of Hookworm, then Ascaris ova, Giardia, Diphyllobothrium latum ova, Hookworm ova, Entamoeba histolytica, Trichuris trichiura.The least frequently detected parasite was Hymenolepis nana, Hymenolepisdiminuta and Enterobiusver micularis. Results revealed higher contamination rate among vegetables collected from Al Gaaid market, followed by and Hail City, then Al Gazala market, and finally Al Shinan market. This study revealed a high prevalence of intestinal parasites among vegetables sold at vegetables markets of Hail region. Accordingly, more intensive studies are of great importance to provide more information on the possible sources of vegetable contamination, in addition to using molecular techniques for species identification and genotyping.