Helminthes and protozoa occurrence in raw vegetable from commercial establishments in Guarapuava County, Paraná, Brazil

Abstract

Vegetables are the most important transmission source of enteroparasites to human beings. The objective of this paper was to evaluate enteroparasites occurrence in vegetables from commercial establishments of Guarapuava County, Paraná State, Brazil. Forty two samples (44.7%) out of 94 were positive, being 15 /21 (71.4%) from smooth lettuce, 21 /55 from rough lettuce and 6 /18 (33.3%) from watercress. Smooth lettuce samples have shown a higher contamination risk than rough lettuce (OR= 4, p < 0.05) and watercress (OR = 5, p < 0.05).The major helminthes and protozoa observed were Ancylostomatidae (85.7%), Strongyloides sp. (28.5%), Giardia sp. (4.7%) and Enterobius sp. (1.5%). The Vegetable contaminations observed in the present work showed both necessity of government control to improve vegetable sanitary conditions, and the importance to adopt control methods before consumption by the population.