Prevalence of Enteric Parasites in raw Leafy Vegetables in baghdad city, Iraq Khalil Hatham Ibraheem Lecturer, Department of Microbiology, College of Medicine, AL-Mustansiriyah University Online published on 4 June, 2019. Abstract Background The eaten raw vegetables have been demonstrated to be a vehicle for transmission of a range of parasites. Various parasites that have been associated with vegetables include species of protozoan and helminthes. To our knowledge no previous surveys have been conducted to evaluate the prevalence of parasitic contamination of vegetables in Baghdad. Therefore, this study aimed to detect the parasitic contamination in some common raw vegetables in Baghdad, Iraq. Materials and Method A cross sectional study conducted in Baghdad city for one year (from February 2012 till February 2013). Iodine staining of wet mount preparation was performed to identifying the enteric parasites in a 360 samples of leafy vegetables that commonly eating raw as salad. Results 112 (31.1%) were positive samples for enteric parasites out of the 360 samples of leafy vegetables that was examined by this study. Celery and lettuce recorded the highest prevalence of 28.6%, 25.9%respectively, followed by cress 19.6% and parsley16.9%, while radish and spearmint had the least prevalence of 6.3% and 2.7% respectively. The statistical analysis indicated that the cysts of Entamoeba histolytica (22.3%), eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides (20.5%) and cysts of Giardia lumblia (17.0%) were the most isolated parasites. Seven other species of parasites were also isolated from these leafy vegetables. They were include eggs of Echinococous (8.9%), oocysts of Toxoplasma gondii (7.1%), eggs of Ancylostoma duodenale (6.3%), eggs of Fasciola hepatica (6.3%), eggs of Strongyloides stercoralis (4.5%), eggs of Trichuris trichiura (4.5%) Conclusion Enteric parasites heavily contaminating the leafy vegetables in Baghdad city Top Keywords Enteric parasite, raw leafy vegetables, leafy vegetables, Baghdad. Top |