The Prevalence of Trichinella spiralis in Domestic Pigs in China: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

The meta-analysis was performed to assess the prevalence of T. spiralis in domestic pigs in China. The potential studies from seven databases (Pubmed, Web of science, Scopus, Google Scholar, CNKI, Wanfang, CBM) were searched. I2, Cochran’s Q statistic and the funnel plot and Egger’s test were used to assess heterogeneity and publication bias, respectively. In this study, a total of 179 articles were captured in the initially screened. Of these, we finally obtained 39 significant articles (including 43 studies involving in 551,097 pigs) for the final analysis. We calculated using a random-effects model, and we found the overall infection rate was 0.04 (95% CI 0.03–0.06). The highest prevalence region was Guangxi. The funnel plot and Egger’s test showed no publication bias in our meta-analysis. In addition, this high heterogeneity index was suggestive of potential variations which could be due to regions, quality scores, detection methods, publication years, or samplings. These results indicated that T. spiralis were still prevalent in some areas in China. This highlights the need for an increased focus on implementing affordable, appropriate control programs to reduce economic losses and T. spiralis infection in domestic pigs in China.

A mini Review of New Potential Therapeutic Strategies Against Trichinellosis

“…Trichinella is the smallest nematode parasitizing humans with a clinically significant impact (Pozio, 2015). The disease has a substantial public health impact on humans as well as high economic cost in terms of pig husbandry and food safety (Nöckler et al, 2005) as it results in high rates of morbidity and mortality (Al-Attar et al, 2020;Bai et al, 2022).…”

“…The species, T. spiralis, pigeonholed one of the top ten foodborne parasites worldwide (El Temsahy et al, 2015). T. spiralis can infect more than 100 different species of animals, including mammals, birds, and reptiles (Gottstein et al, 2009;Bai et al, 2022). Pigs are the main definitive hosts in T. spiralis' life cycle (Basso et al, 2022).…”

“…At the parenteral phase, malaise, fever, marked eosinophilia, and widespread myalgias for up to 8 weeks are common (Sethi et al, 2010). Myalgia is particularly in the rib cage, mid-abdomen, and face caused by released larvae (Bai et al, 2022;Rawla and Sharma, 2022).…”