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Summary Risk Profile on Trichinella in meat

Year of publication 2013

Pages 5p.

Author Office of Assistant Director-General (Agriculture Department)

Product type Document

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) Trichinellosis is a parasitic disease of humans caused by eating raw or inadequately treated meat from domestic or game animals infected by Trichinella spp. Infective first stage larvae live in muscle cells of a wide range of meat-eating mammals, and some birds and reptiles (OIE, 2012). Human trichinellosis contracted from commercial supplies of meat have been most often linked to infected pigs, wild boar, or horses. Human cases have been also linked to the consumption of infected meat from game animals including bears and walruses. The parasite is a nematode which has an atypical direct life cycle that does not involve stages developing outside of the host. Muscle larvae are released from infected meat in the stomach of suitable host species, develop to adult worms in the intestine, and produce pre-encapsulated larvae which migrate preferentially to certain muscle sites in the host to complete the life cycle within several weeks. Within the muscle cells the larvae of some Trichinella species are encapsulated in a thick collagen layer. Within the host muscle larvae remain infective for up to several years. All genotypes of Trichinella are pathogenic for humans, but in animals the infection appears clinically unapparent. Some animal species serve as reservoir hosts. Domestic pigs and rats have been reported to harbour T. spiralis within the domestic cycle mostly in temperate regions of the world (

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