parasitic contamination in commonly- consumed vegetables in mazandaran province, northern iran

Background: raw (fresh) vegetables are an important ingredient of healthy diet. many enteric bacterial, parasitic and viral pathogens could be transmitted by vegetables. mazandaran province is located in northern iran with a coastal area and extensive fields for vegetable cultivation. the current study is designed to evaluate the parasitic contamination of fresh vegetables. methods: a total of 150 samples of fresh vegetables obtained from markets were examined for parasitic infections using standard methods.results: out of 104 samples (60.3%) were contaminated with parasites. parsley and radish with prevalence rates of 90% (18/20) and 39.1% (9/23) were the most and least contaminated vegetables. free living larva and trichostrongylus were the most and least common parasites in our results. conclusion: it can be concluded that parasitological contamination of raw vegetables may be a health threat to consumers of such products.