Parasites and food: ripe for exploitation

Abstract

Parasites are often exploited for emotive or political purposes. This is especially so for a number of foodborne parasitic zoonoses, where this exploitation may not necessarily best serve the public good.

Zoonotic helminths – why the challenge remains

“…There are therefore growing demands for producers, not only to demonstrate that their pigs are Trichinella- free but that there is no risk of Trichinella infection spilling over to their pigs from wildlife. The situation has been exacerbated by the insensitivity of diagnostic assays used in meat inspection, and the growing demand for free-range pork (Thompson, 2014). Although routine screening for Trichinella in meat from endemic regions is mainly done using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based techniques, molecular tools are playing a vital role in the screening of wildlife (Barlow et al , 2021).…”

“…Although routine screening for Trichinella in meat from endemic regions is mainly done using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-based techniques, molecular tools are playing a vital role in the screening of wildlife (Barlow et al , 2021). It appears that political manoeuvring associated with market access is serving to artificially inflate this as an issue (Thompson, 2014). This may be the case in the United Kingdom where there is a perceived need for data gathering and assessment of Trichinella in United Kingdom wildlife even though it has rarely been detected in the past (Zimmer et al , 2009; Food and Environmental Research Agency, 2013).…”

Socioeconomic burden of foodborne parasites

“…every year at a cost of US$35 to US$560 million (€25 to €400 million) (Alban et al, 2011;Murrell and Pozio, 2011), even though a recent report indicates that Trichinella spp. In many countries, post slaughter testing and treatments, such as freezing and cooking, are not reliably applied to control trichinellosis (Thompson, 2014), and so there are no cost burdens associated with testing. This has raised concerns that the cost of universal testing is not proportionate to the public health benefit and that a move to risk-based surveillance concentrating on uncontrolled production systems is warranted (Alban et al, 2011;Pozio, 2014;Torgerson et al, 2014).…”

Components of control for foodborne parasites and their application in the food production chain

“…Because transmission of Toxoplasma can occur via the consumption of tissue cysts in meat and does not require ingestion of oocysts, the domestic cat definitive host has perhaps been unfairly vilified in the perpetuation of this parasite (Thompson, 2014). However, a large-scale nationwide survey of retail meats in the United States found viable Toxoplasma in only a few pork samples, concluding that consumption of retail meats could not account for the level of Toxoplasma in the US population (Hill and Dubey, 2013).…”