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
Abdominal pain
Headaches
Fever
Chills
Eye swelling
Achy joints
Muscle pains
Hemorrhages
Itchy skin
As worms encyst in different body parts…. First Stage
Second Stage
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.
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.
