Pig/Hog hunters spreading brain worms

[Zoogster]

http://eands.caltech.edu/articles/LXVI4/brainworms.html

Tapeworm: From Pork Chops to the Brain

The pork tapeworm is one of the most common disease-causing brain parasites. This parasite infects over 50 million people worldwide, and is the leading cause of brain seizures. It is usually contracted from eating undercooked pork, and once in the gut, it attaches to the intestine, and then grows to be several feet long. Under certain circumstances, these worms can also invade the brain, where thankfully they don’t grow to be quite so large.

Why does the worm sometimes attach to the intestine but at other times travel to the brain? It all depends on what stage of its life cycle the worm is in when it is swallowed. In its larval stage, the worm will hook onto the intestine; however, if eggs are swallowed, they hatch in the stomach. From there the larvae can enter the bloodstream and eventually travel to the brain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysticercosis



These parasites are not common (but do exist) in commercial pork due to irradiation, freezing, and most importantly limiting the spread of such pathogens in live animals.
However the parasites are very common in wild pork. As is the similar cause of trichinosis.

It's Not a Tumor, It's a Brain Worm:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/PainManagement/story?id=6309464&page=1

Pork Tapeworms a Small, But Growing Trend

"We've got a lot more of cases of this in the United States now," said Raymond Kuhn, professor of biology and an expert on parasites at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. "Upwards of 20 percent of neurology offices in California have seen it."

(That is just in California, it is even more common in southern states where highly effected wild pigs are regularly hunted and eaten.)

Surgery to remove a brain worm because it started causing symptoms:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJCh7bR1Nf0


Most people with these things are unaware even those with brain cysts, and simply have less mental competency and other effects from having parts of their brains damaged.
However if someone does experience symptoms they should not be ignored.
While the parasites can be treated with drugs, the damaged cyst area is often a permanent hole in the brain. The sooner infection is stopped the better.



This effects not only the people that initially eat the pork, as it then spreads to other people because those who ate the infected pork continue to spread the microscopic eggs in their feces. Thus simply not washing their hands well among other things can result in BRAIN WORMS for someone else.
The cook in the restaurant, the teenager preparing the fast food, or the worker in the field picking your veggies, if they got infected from pork they begin to spread brain worms.
Immigrants from places where such things are more common in domestic pork are a major source.
But wild pork in the US is another major source.


There was a reason some religions prohibited the eating of this dirty creature.
It not only impacts those who eat it, but other people that then deal with the infected people.


So all you pork hunters, and people in areas where pork is hunted meaning some neighbors and members of the community will be infected and spreading the parasite, be careful!

 

[Cosmoline]

Let's not go overboard with this. How many cases are there actually in the US? How many actually get into the brain? How many deaths?

A lot of food caries risks. Many veges may be tainted with bovine e coli strains that kill a lot of people. Oysters can have toxins. Even sorrel can kill you if enough is consumed.

But by ginger, if I die I want to go down eating oysters wrapped in sorrel and bacon!

 

[Zoogster]

They problem is growing, and those are just known cases. Many infected do not die or know they are infected and their brain is slowly degrading. They do not seek treatment or get diagnosed in many cases.

A lot of food caries risks.

Most bacteria can be overcome by a good immune system and while a risk are not in the same class, and those that typically succumb to bacteria are already weak or vulnerable. When overcome things like E.coli do not have permanent long lasting effects like ruined portions of the brain.
Getting over being sick from eating some food is nothing like permanent cysts in your body and brain.

 

[Cosmoline]

But how many actual brain infections are we talking about in the US as opposed to a gut infection?

 

[MCgunner]

So THAT'S what's wrong with me! I was kinda wonderin'.

 

[MCgunner]

Hmm, could this be Al Qaeda propaganda? Or, perhaps it's ETA propoganda? Just sayin'.....

I know a LOT of folks that eat a lot of wild pork. None of 'em I know have had such problems. This is the first I've heard of such a thing. In Texas, wild pork is pretty routine seeing as the things are taking over down here. Me, I ain't gonna quit eating pork just on this rumor.

 

[Zoogster]

It is very common in Mexico, less common in the US, but growing.

http://pathmicro.med.sc.edu/parasitology/cestodes.htm

T. solium eggs can also infect humans and cause cysticercosis (larval cysts in lung, liver, eye and brain) resulting in blindness and neurological disorders. The incidence of cerebral cysticercosis can be as high 1 per 1000 population and may account for up to 20% of neurological case in some countries (e.g., Mexico); cysticercosis ocular involvement occurs in about 2.5% of patients and muscular involvement is as high as 10% (India).

Only California and Oregon currently notify for the disease. That is why infection in California is more well known.
Infection rates are certainly higher where the causes are greater, such as those with high numbers of infected wild pigs being consumed:

http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/17/1/1.htm

Consideration should be given to making cysticercosis a nationally notifiable disease. Currently, only 2 states, California and Oregon, require reporting of cysticercosis.

So the CDC does not keep good records:

Emigration from taeniasis/cysticercosis-endemic areas to the United States is common. In 2008, ≈3.4 million immigrants from Mexico, >700,000 from Central and South American countries, and >1 million from areas of Asia were legal permanent residents of the United States (29). Moreover, undocumented immigration from such areas continues to occur in considerable numbers. The US Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates that 11.8 million unauthorized immigrants, nearly 7 million of them from Mexico, resided in the United States in January 2007, and an average of 470,000 persons emigrate from foreign countries each year (30). Cysticercosis and taeniasis are widely prevalent in Latin America. Although data are limited, a high prevalence of tapeworm carriers has been observed in these populations. In a study of migrant farmworkers in southern California, DeGiorgio et al., using a sensitive and specific serologic test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA, USA), documented a T. solium tapeworm prevalence of 1.1% (31). This level is comparable to that observed in disease-endemic areas. A survey of intestinal parasites among farmworkers in North Carolina found that 3% of workers from Central American countries had Taenia spp. tapeworm eggs in their stools (32). Because T. solium tapeworm eggs are morphologically indistinguishable from T. saginata tapeworm eggs (beef tapeworm), it was not possible to determine how many of these represented T. solium tapeworm infection; however, T. saginata tapeworms, which do not cause human cysticercosis, are less common than T. solium tapeworms in Central America. Cardenas et al. reported finding Taenia spp. tapeworm in 3.3% of selected residents tested from the Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, border communities

As you can see a lot of the data is focused on those coming to the US with the disease already, but wild pork has been found to be highly infected. Most groups of wild swine have the parasite.


MCgunner said:

I know a LOT of folks that eat a lot of wild pork. None of 'em I know have had such problems.

Most people have minimal symptoms, they are just dumber with holes in their brain.
It also infects the muscle tissue, in fact that is the parasite's natural life cycle. It shares similarity with the related pork parasite that causes trich. The parasite is consumed spreads to tissue and forms small tumor like cysts, and then spreads when the cysts in the muscle tissue are consumed by another animal, and the parasite can then continue its life cycle.
People infected permanently have damage from those cysts, but the eggs they are shedding (that can infect others) and gut infection can be eliminated with drugs.

 

[Zoogster]

Cosmoline said:

But by ginger, if I die I want to go down eating oysters wrapped in sorrel and bacon!

Typically bacon should be one of the lowest transmission sources, especially commercial bacon.
It is chemically treated with things like nitrates, receives irradiation in the US, infection of pork at the commercial level in the US is low (but not non existent), and most importantly it is cut thin so the heat will easily and uniformly penetrate and then is fried in several hundred degree bacon fat as it cooks. (Of course other preparation methods like wrapping things and baking them are not as safe.)
The CDC reports 0.013% of U.S. commercial swine is infected with Trichinella, for example, but the rate is nearly 50% in some countries like in Eastern Europe, and extremely high in wild pig populations.

Most danger is from roasts and larger cuts of meat that the heat has more difficulty in penetrating, making a thermometer important for reaching the desired safe temperature.

Further since the risk has been greatly reduced in US commercial pork a lot of pork recipes out there have greatly relaxed temperatures to give a more moist and delicious result. Cooking to 170F as used to be common results in a drier product that is unlikely to have pink.
Many recipes as a result go lower in the 150-160f range, much much less room for error and some completely unsafe, with little room for thermometer inaccuracy, or error in not measuring the coldest part of the meat.
Commercial pork is also high in fat which helps keeps it moist longer. Wild dirty parasite ridden hogs tend to be quite lean, encouraging people to cook them even less because they get dry even easier. A wild hog would have to be cooked less to be anywhere near as moist as a commercial pork product. So parasite transmission is more likely just from preparation techniques, and this in an animal that typically has the parasite (while most commercial meat will not).

Of course there is also times like cleaning game in the field where someone needs to keep in mind that the intestines and guts are loaded with microscopic eggs that can spread the parasite if consumed.
You wouldn't want to touch your mouth or other things you will touch later while cleaning such a filthy animal.
Eating wild pork is very risky, and the risks are not just for the eater, but those they come into contact with.
Even someone already infected can continue to have their body degrade from additional infection or consumption of parasite as it results in more cysts and damaged tissue throughout the body.

 

[Cosmoline]

Eating wild pork is very risky, and the risks are not just for the eater, but those they come into contact with.

The studies you cite show that the big risk is from third world pork. Has anyone actually tracked the rate of infection among Americans who hunt and eat American wild pork?

This 2005 study notes that the inspectors found only one infected boar from 1996 to 2001 in Texas, so it doesn't appear to be as prevalent as you suggest:

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/v...-redir=1#search="texas+pigs+wild+trichinosis"

I think the emphasis needs to be on proper butchering and field care, plus proper cooking. The doctor in the video in question was RELIEVED to find the worm. Parasites are generally an easy fix compared with, for example, an actual tumor in your brain.

 

[Leaky Waders]

Cook pork til the meat is white on the inside and there is no problem.

 

[Dr.Rob]

The problem isn't eating wild pigs, it's wild pigs defecating in farm fields. Wild pigs are a leading cause of salmanilla (sp?) outbreaks in CA crops according to Nat. Geo.

 

[Shadow 7D]

So...
You give another reason to exterminate wild hogs
it's a risk associated with EVERY game meat,
As bad a 'factory' production methods MAY be, it does produce a UNIFORM quality product.
usually a MUCH higher quality than 'natural raised' ie. wild.

 

[MCgunner]

Hmm, I know a LOT of dumb people, but hell, like me, they were dumb from birth.

 

[Maple_City_Woodsman]

I would have to see this only a week before my first pig hunt.

Oh well, sounds like even more reason to deep-fat-fry things.

 

[wombat13]

The FDA just lowered the recommended cooking temperature for commercial pork. They now say it is ok to cook it medium rare. This info would suggest that it is a good idea to follow the old pork cooking guidelines for wild pork. Cook it through and you'll have no problems.

 

[mrbro]

I only cook pork 1 way, in the smoker for about 12 hours. I pull it out and it's about 190 degrees, wrap in in foil and let it sit for an hour. Then I shake it off the bone. Nothin' dry about it. The next day I add some "special" vinegar based hot pepper sauce and let it cook for a couple more hours. My family calls it simply, "The Pork".

 

[Zoogster]

Dr.Rob said:

Wild pigs are a leading cause of salmanilla (sp?) outbreaks in CA crops according to Nat. Geo.

I think they just get blamed, in reality it likely is the large number of illegals that pick most crops in California, where they use porta potties (when they have them) and don't wash their hands as they lack running water. Then they resume picking your fresh fruit and veggies.
Such activity is a good risk for E.Coli (which is primarily from human fecal matter.)
The industry wouldn't want to acknowledge that source though because such people paid slave labor wages are key to profit and keeping produce costs down.
Illegals from third world countries lacking medical treatment and living on the fringes of society are generally a primary source of many third world ailments, from parasites to tuberculosis. They don't get trained in proper handling of food items, have untreated conditions, and don't obtain the licenses and certification, get necessary physicals that would uncover problems, and avoid inspection because they are illegals. Some illegal helper in a restaurant for example is not even officially there.



But this is about the pigs, and the dangers they bring.
They are dirty, not only do they have many parasites, but pseudorabies, brucellosis, among other things.
Some of these things are more dangerous to bring home to your pets than you. Pseudorabies for example kills dogs and cats quite rapidly, while the dirty hogs with it are fairly resistant.

Shadow 7D said:

You give another reason to exterminate wild hogs
it's a risk associated with EVERY game meat,

It is not a risk associated with all game. Yes wild game can have things requiring one to cook their food well, but pigs around the world are generally the most disease ridden and dirty animals there is. They host and harbor a lot of nasty things. They eat lots of rats and other rodents and catch what they have as well. They wallow in mud, scavenge anything, and have a body that is similar enough to human tissue to share many of the things they get.
Not only do they carry many diseases and parasites, but they have them in much greater concentrations than most animals typically eaten.
The meat has only become safer in the most advanced nations with high food and feeding standards, like the US. Even eating commercial pork is dangerous in much of the world. Wild pork is not subject to those standards, and is still eating diseased rats and dead animals out in the wild.


Something like a deer, elk, or most other herbivores are significantly safer. They are cleaner and eat a safer diet. Many other animals are also different enough from humans that not as many of the diseases they do acquire are shared with humans, while pigs on the other hand...
But then I also don't eat predators like coyote and other end sources in the food chain that accumulate the nasty stuff.
Pigs have been known as a primary vector for spreading everything from flu to trich going back thousands of years. They are walking garbage disposals, that will eat trash, all small animals like insects, worms, snails, rats, etc they can catch, dead animals, feces of other animals, and generally anything 'edible' in the environment.
That is also why they remained popular as one of the easiest animals to produce meat with, and they were released wild in places as an emergency source of food that would raise itself.

 

[Shadow 7D]

Zooster, I'm a Vegetarian
Ever wonder why the Old testament has sanitation laws. They are a GREAT read, esp. with modern understanding.

 

[MCgunner]

Got put pigs here. Pigs are edible. I love killing pigs. I eat pigs. I'm a Christian, not a Jew, not a Muslim. I don't have problems with pork.

 

[wow6599]

Seems that everyone has this covered, but I just wanted to add a side note. The Missouri Department of Conservation asks that you burn or bury a wild hog if you don't intend on taking it with you. I LOVE pork, but the nasty wild hogs out there are spreading disease like wildfire.

 

[mrbro]

Ya know, wild pork is not looking so appetizing right about now.

 

[Art Eatman]

Bottom line: Don't field dress an animal if you have any open not-yet-healed cuts or sores on your hands.

Wash your hands after field dressing and/or butchering and/or preparing for cooking.

Cook pork until it's well-done.

Follow that pattern of meat-handling and the odds are way-high in your favor.

 

[TexasPatriot.308]

no new news here. hogs and parasites go hand in hand (or hoof in hoof).

 

[birdshot8's]

I wonder if having pets is more dangerous than eating pork. I can remember warnings to cook pork thouroughly from the 60's. I have always thought cooking killed any parasites and their eggs in the pork.

 

[TexasPatriot.308]

summertime is not the time to even think about gutting/cooking/eating feral hogs. especially here in Texas.