Presence of parasitic ova, cysts and larva on common fresh fruits and vegetables sold at some major markets in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Several parasitic infections are associated with poor hygiene and environmental sanitation resulting in food and water containing ova, cysts or larva of these parasites. Therefore, a survey of fruits and vegetables sold at some major markets in Ibadan was carried out between January and June, 2011 to identify the ova, cyst and larva present on them. Atotal of 264 fruits and vegetables pieces were examined using standard wet mount procedure and Kinyoun acid fast stain to detect parasites. The percentage of fruits and vegetables with eggs, cysts or larvae of eight different species of parasites encoun-tered were 38.09%, 20.38%, 18.56%, 8.33%, 6.42, 4.55%, 2.15% and 1.67% for Ascaris lumbricoides eggs, Strongyloides stercoralis larvae, hookworm eggs, Oocysts of Cryptosporidium , immature cyst of Entamoeba histolytica/dispar, trichuris trichuira eggs, Taenia species egg and oocyst of Isospora species respectively. Tomatoes had the highest percentage with parasites’ ova, cysts or larva (73.33%) followed by Irvingia and carrots (66.7% each), mangoes (58.33 %), garden eggs (43.35%), cherries (33.33%), oranges (25.0%), cucumber (22.22%) and lime (12.5%). Considering the availability of different fruits at different seasons of the year and the present-day “back to nature” approach to healthy diet, it is pertinent to encourage  proper  washing  of  fresh  and  raw  fruits  and  vegetables  before  they  are  sold  or  eaten,  thereby  preventing transmission either at point of sell or consumption of fruits and vegetables which form sources of infection via the oral route.

Keywords: fruits, vegetables, market survey, parasites, risk of transmission.