avoid trichinosis?

[Paul7]

But that is not Trich. I bet at least 70% of ALL foods are contaminated with...something.

I didn't say it was trich, that's not the only bug you can get.

 

[elkhunterCO]

Put a pork chop in a pan, fill the pan with soda. Let sit for a few minutes. Drain out the soda and look at your pork chop.

I don't eat pigs anymore.

 

[justin22885]

well im not worried about catching the disease, i just dont want to be eating worms, alive, dead, cooked, i just dont want to be cooking and consuming wormy meat.. it is an appetite killer

isnt the larvae of the worm that causes trichinosis microscopic in its larval state?.. how can you see them crawl out of the meat when you cook it?

if it was bacterial, viral, etc i probably wouldnt even care, but worms really disgust me, i dont even fish with the things

 

[TimSr]

well simply by raising a single generation of trichinosis free pigs in an environment where they cannot get it will essentially purify your stock.. once they stopped feeding pigs garbage, and with the fact they arent put into an environment where they could east anything they arent given, there just isnt any way for them to get it.. if im not mistaken pigs are largely corn fed now so the ones you eat though omnivorous, have been on a herbivorous diet

While the end of feeding them scraps containing meat has reduced the risk for domestic hogs, they still manage to eat a lot of things that the hog farmer never gave them. Dogs, cats, rats, and mice are also common carriers, and its not unusual to have dead rodents turn up inside of animal pens. If something dies in a hog pen, you'll never see it.

I'd venture to guess that any adult who grew up eating meat has comsumed parasites of one kind or another, and not gotten sick because they were killed on the stove.

Adult trichina worms are about 2mm in length. Thats a little bit longer than the thickness of a quarter. You pick up the parasite by ingesting the the cyst encapulated larvae which are microscopic.

Poor Justin has just turned vegan.

 

[Bexar]

I wonder if he has ever eaten Redfish with worms as long as earthworms cooked in the meat? They are white and get eaten all the time.

Anybody mentioned Brucellosis to him yet? Wild hogs are carriers and you can get it just by cleaning one.

 

[Bexar]

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/trichinosis/basics/prevention/con-20027095

Ibid. The best defense against trichinosis is proper food preparation. Follow these tips to avoid trichinosis:

References to freezing and bear meat also.

 

[justin22885]

actually, i probably havent eaten any fish with worms considering i cant stand the taste of seafood, i catch and release when i fish as well and to be completely honest, my pork intake was already diminished a bit by not liking pork roasts or chops and really only eating ham.. as far as breakfast sausage, smoke sausage, and bacon, i eat beef sausages for breakfast anyway and there are alternatives for the other two as well

i wont be going vegan, simply for being too grossed out at this point.. it may wear off, it may not, who knows, logically i believe youre safe from the risk with farm raised pigs but its not easy to shake the image

and its even possible most the information is nothing but jewish/muslim/vegan fear mongering.. i wonder what percentage of wild pigs would have it.. like are we talking 10%, 25%, 50% of wild pigs.. or are we talking more on the scale of below 1%?

 

[Paul7]

I don't eat pigs anymore.

More for the rest of us.

 

[der Teufel]

Trichinosis in wild pork

My wife's cousin works for a company that processes wild pork. The cousin is in the administrative side and does the accounting and scheduling of shipments, etc. Cousin said once that they have to test every hog for trichinosis. If they find it they can't ship it to certain countries, although they cook it and sell it elsewhere. I asked how often they find trichinosis, and the answer was "3 to 5 a year". I said "Three to five percent, I would have thought it might be as high as 30%". No, the answer was 3 to 5 hogs per year have trichinosis.

That's not very many. However, I would still advise cooking the meat well just in case. It doesn't need to be cooked to 180°F as originally posted, trichinosis dies at 137°F, so technically cooking to 140°F is good enough. Because of possible errors in measurement (not the coolest site, thermometer accuracy, etc.) I think the real minimum is more like 150° or, if you're paranoid, cook to 160°F. I cook to 160°F just to be safe and to ensure that no one else need be concerned. Trichinosis larva is so small that it can pass through the walls of your intestines, so you're not going to detect it, even if it is present in the meat you're consuming.

Commercial pork in the USA is considered to be trichinosis-free for the reasons stated previously. You don't need to overcook commercial pork. If you're buying free-range pork (or hunting it, obviously) it's a different story. While the risk may be small, the possibility of trichinosis is why I don't make pork jerky.

I rarely buy beef any more because we have a freezer full of pork that tastes just as good to me.

 

[Bexar]

There is a .125% incidence of trichinosis in domestic pork. While small percentage wise considering the amount of hogs slaughtered in the USA...it's out there.

Here's some information the OP can pick through. I'd highlight some referenced points and other CDC links but I've got to rest my neck. I'll look some more later.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5809a1.htm

 

[justin22885]

3-5 wild pigs a year?.. thats probably less than one percent of one percent.. like .001% or fewer.. and domestic pigs would be less than that.. i read that slaughterhouses are often tested and typically zero are found so it seems like a grossly exaggerated incident even for wild pork

ive also read that the mass majority of the incredibly few animals recorded to have trichinosis have been wild carnivores like wolves, bears, foxes, cougars, etc

from that link bexar posted, it seems wild boars may actually be less likely to have it simply by not being fed garbage that pig farmers used to feed their pigs?.. is this true?

 

[alsaqr]

Trichinosis occurs infrequently in wild hogs.

According to Department of Fish and Game Senior Wildlife Veterinarian Dr. Ben Gonzales of the Wildlife Investigations Laboratory, limited data related to pig hunting indicates that trichinellosis (trichinosis) is relatively uncommon in wild pigs in California. Gonzales says he personally still cooks all his pork -- domestic and wild -- to well done. The greater risk to human health from wild pig relates to food hygiene and care of the carcass after it is taken.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/outposts/2010/07/fish-and-game-q-and-a-1.html

As it happens, the trichinae parasite is extremely rare in wild game and it is even more rare for anyone to become sick with trichinosis from eating game. According to a Centers for Disease Control study that surveyed incidence of the disease from 2008 to 2012, there were only 84 cases of trichinosis in all of America. Of those, 43 were eating wild game. That’s 43 people in a five-year period, and 30 of those 43 were in one incident, an unfortunate party I’ll describe in detail later. Consider that number when you think of the millions of people who eat wild game every year.

..................................................................................................

And guess what? According to that CDC study I linked to above, only six cases of trichinosis were tied to eating wild pigs. Six. In five years. You have a better chance of getting struck by lighting on a boat, falling over and then being eaten face-first by a shark.

http://honest-food.net/2015/03/02/on-trichinosis-in-wild-game/

 

[justin22885]

was that one incident of trichinosis outbreak from when someone was selling cougar jerky?

 

[alsaqr]

Trichinosis was being spread because of infected uncooked pork in garbage.

Let's be clear about something: Garbage is still being fed to domestic hogs. The federal government requires that garbage fed to domestic hogs be cooked for at least one hour at 100 degrees C.

Wild hogs and and bears get trichinosis from the soil.

In about 1960 a member of our EOD unit caught trichinosis. We will call him "Charlie", because that's not his real name: "Charlie" nearly died. Then "Charlie's" Orthodox Jewish grandparents discovered he had eaten pig meat and disinherited him. "Charlie" missed out on a piece of what is now one of the largest construction companies on the east coast.

was that one incident of trichinosis outbreak from when someone was selling cougar jerky?

Not sure he was selling jerky but he infected a lot of folks:

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00040621.htm

 

[justin22885]

so because pigs were fed uncooked garbage which included undercooked meats, likely scraps and trimmings, this is what has allowed the worms to become more prevalent in domestic animals? was it a closed loop that allowed more infestations vs wild?

 

[justin22885]

so.. am i right in saying the prevalence of trichinosis in wild pigs is less than 1% of 1%?

 

[Bexar]

If the CDC says you are. Their website has several articles on the subject. Lots of information...I'd recommend it highly for the goverents accurate information.

 

[Bexar]

so.. am i right in saying the prevalence of trichinosis in wild pigs is less than 1% of 1%?

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/trichinae/docs/fact_sheet.htm

 

[zxcvbob]

You can also kill trich by freezing the meat for a month at 0°F. Look up "certified pork" (works for bear also)

 

[mquail]

That is disgusting

You should try taking a parasitology course right before lunch.

 

[justin22885]

some creatures should be forced into extinction, and i dont think the ecosystem would miss them

 

[rcmodel]

Cook it done.
Eat it.

No problem!

It's worked for 1,000's of years, or we wouldn't be here worried about it.

rc

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Meat, by definition, is "contaminated" with lots of stuff, period.

Animal bodies (and humans are animals, too) are full of all kinds of virus' and bacterial flora, both "good" and "bad".

Yes, some is more "bad" than others, but it's always there nonetheless.

For our part, as consumers, the key is to handle and store meats properly to prevent the additional contamination of meats and minimize subsequent growth of existing/added viral and bacterial flora. It is also our responsibility to properly prepare the meats when we cook them.

For us as hunters, the key is to take healthy critters and to properly process the carcasses and store the meats for later use.

 

[Davek1977]

Put a pork chop in a pan, fill the pan with soda. Let sit for a few minutes. Drain out the soda and look at your pork chop.

I don't eat pigs anymore.

That is certainly your choice, but..............

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/porkworm.asp

 

[Sav .250]

Internal temp of pork is just as important as far as ....cooked goes.

"eating worm infested meat." Think your overplaying that one. J s/n.