Trichinellosis Outbreak Caused by Meat from a Wild Boar Hunted in an Italian Region Considered to be at Negligible Risk for Trichinella

Abstract

The wild boar is an important source of trichinellosis for people in European countries as a large number of hunted animals escape veterinary control. In November 2012, uncooked sausages made with meat from wild boar were consumed by 38 persons in a village of the Lucca province (Tuscany region, Italy). Of them, 34 were serologically positive, 32 developed clinical signs and symptoms of trichinellosis, and two were asymptomatic. Trichinella britovi larvae were detected in vacuum-packed sausages made with the same batch of sausages consumed raw which had been prepared with meat from wild boar hunted in the Lucca province. As no case of trichinellosis had been reported in this region during the last 20 years, the regional public health authority considered the risk for this zoonosis to be negligible and put in place a surveillance programme on Trichinella spp. in indicator animals (mainly foxes and including wild boar for private consumption), by testing only a percentage of heads. The experience from this outbreak shows that the definition of a region with a negligible risk for Trichinella infection is not applicable to wild boar and stresses the need to test all Trichinella-susceptible wild animals intended for human consumption and to implement risk communication to consumers and hunters.

Eosinophilia in Infectious Diseases

“…Trichinellosis is caused by consumption of undercooked domestic pork, wild boar, bear, deer and walrus [40-43]. The average incubation period is 1-4 weeks depending on larval load and the Trichinella species [40, 41, 44, 45].…”

“…The average incubation period is 1-4 weeks depending on larval load and the Trichinella species [40, 41, 44, 45]. Approximately 90% of patients present with an absolute eosinophil count >1,000/μl.…”

“…The acute illness typically improves in 2-5 weeks, but myalgia can take months to resolve. Eosinophilia can take 6 months or longer to normalize [40, 41, 44-47]. …”

T‐cell clones in human trichinellosis: Evidence for a mixed Th1/Th2 response

“…The aim of this study was to investigate which cytokines are elicited by TsES in patients with trichinellosis, who had been involved in an outbreak caused by T. britovi …”

Trichinellosis in Vietnam

“…18 This could represent a bias when the clinical and epidemiological data of these five outbreaks are compared with the literature data. 30,31 In a review investigation on 5,377 cases of trichinellosis, which occurred worldwide from 1986 to 2009, diarrhea was documented in 27% of patients, fever was documented in 53% of patients, myalgia was documented in 67.0% of patients, and edema was documented in 55.0% of patients. 3 The short incubation period (average = 9.5 days) and the severity of the clinical picture of 126 symptomatic Vietnamese patients suggest that they ingested a high number of larvae.…”