| This once common disease from eating undercooked | | | | acute food poisoning when there is activity of the |
| pork has become something of a rarity in this country | | | | adults in the intestine. |
| at around a dozen cases annually. However, the few | | | | Sudden appearance of fever, muscle soreness and |
| cases that do exist are typically associated with | | | | pain with swelling of parts of the face is early classic |
| people that hunt and eat wild game. | | | | signs. This can sometimes be followed by retinal |
| Due to laws here that require and enforce the cooking | | | | hemorrhages and other ocular signs. |
| of garbage and offal before feeding to swine, better | | | | With heavy infections cardiac, respiratory and |
| pest control by keeping rats away from where pigs | | | | neurological problems may ensue with death by heart |
| are kept and an educated public who is aware of the | | | | failure being most common. The more larvae you |
| risks of eating undercooked pork, Trichinella is a minor | | | | ingest, the more serious the disease. |
| public health issue. | | | | Trichinosis can be diagnosed by serological |
| There are still small outbreaks from time to time here | | | | (antigen-antibody) tests. Finding encysted larvae in a |
| and abroad with the consumption of dog, bear, wild | | | | biopsy of skeletal muscle is conclusive (see above). |
| boar and cougar, just to name a few. | | | | It can be treated with the anti-parasitic drugs |
| Other animals that are considered hosts to this | | | | mebendazole or albendazole. Steroids may be |
| parasite include: cats, rats, horses, foxes, wolves, polar | | | | required in cases with severe symptoms to reduce |
| bears, marine mammals of the Arctic and lions and | | | | inflammation to protect the heart. |
| leopards in the tropics. | | | | What preventive measures are available?o Cook all |
| Trichinosis is a parasitic disease caused by the | | | | fresh pork, pork products and meat from wild animals |
| roundworm Trichinella spiralis. If someone ingests | | | | to where all the meats reaches 160° F. The meat |
| undercooked or raw meat with the encysted larvae, | | | | should turn from pink to gray.o Freezing pork at |
| the stomach acid releases the larvae which mature to | | | | -13° F for at least 10 days will kill the cysts. The |
| adults in the intestine. | | | | exception to this rule is strains of Trichinella found in |
| After about a week the female starts releasing larvae | | | | walrus and bear meat which are cold-resistant and |
| which enter the bloodstream and find their way to | | | | must be cooked as noted above.o Smoking, salting or |
| skeletal muscle where they encapsulate. | | | | drying meat is not effective. |
| There can be gastrointestinal symptoms mimicking | | | | |