Trichinella spiralis By David Meyer

What is it? Parasitic disease Commonly called the trichina worm Caused by eating raw or undercooked pork or wild game products that are infected with the larvae of the roundworm

Morphology Have complete digestive system Round cross section Bilaterally symmetric Has both mouth and anus

Where is it? Most common in the developing world and where pigs are commonly fed raw garbage. Infection occurs commonly in certain wild carnivorous animals and in domestic pigs.

Diversity and Spread of Trichinella Just the pink horizontal stripes are T. spiralis

Life Cycle

Signs and Symptoms Nausea Diarrhea Vomiting Fatigue Fever Second Stage First Stage Nausea Diarrhea Vomiting Fatigue Fever Abdominal pain Headaches Fever Chills Eye swelling Achy joints Muscle pains Hemorrhages Itchy skin As worms encyst in different body parts….

Incubation Period Abdominal symptoms occur 1-2 days after infection. Further symptoms usually occur 2-8 weeks after consuming contaminated meat. Severity often depends on the number of worms ingested. Mild cases of this disease are often mistaken for the flu.

Risk Factors Eating raw or undercooked meats, especially pork and wild game. It is not transmitted from one person to another.

Diagnosis A blood test or muscle biopsy Stool studies can detect adult worms, females being 3mm long and males about half that size.

Female Male

Treatment Corticosteroids-treat joint pain and inflammation. Treat symptoms more than anything. Thiabendazole-kills the adult worms, but there is no treatment however, that kills the larvae.

Prevention Cooking meat products thoroughly. Freezing pork than 6 inches thick for 20 days at 5 °F or three days at −4 °F kills larval worms. Cooking all meat fed to pigs or wild game.

More Information Cdc.gov Wikipedia.com World Health Organization

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