Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

Parasites are commonly associated with vegetable or fruit borne outbreaks of gastroenteritis. Among all pathogenic intestinal parasites, helminthes cause the most number of parasitic infections in humans and animals, especially in developing countries. We conducted a study to determine the extent of parasitic contamination of raw vegetables sold in some markets of Casablanca (Morocco) .Vegetables collected for the study were lettuce, radish, beet, cabbage, parsley, coriander, and mint. Of the 128 samples of vegetables, 80 (62.5%) were found to be contaminated with parasites, of which 11 (8.6%) were contaminated with infestive strongyle larvae. Helminth eggs detected included those of Ascaris sp. (10.2%), Toxocara sp. (8.6%), Taeniidae eggs (1.6%) and strongyle eggs (50.8%). The highest mean charges of parasitic contamination were registered in radish (11.86 eggs/200g) and lettuce (7.9 eggs/200g). Results of this study show that parasitological contamination of vegetables sold in Casablanca markets may pose a health risk to consumers of such products.