In the province of Lucca, twenty-six cases of Trichinellosis infection have been ascertained among people, hunters and their families, who ate raw sausages from regularly hunted wild boar.
After tasting the raw meat, processed into sausages, wild boars regularly killed during hunting trips fell ill with Trichinellosis; it happened in the last two weeks in the province of Lucca where 26 cases of infection have arrived, all limited to hunters and their families residing in the Serchio Valley area. Trichinellosis is a rare pathology in Italy but sometimes some cases emerge; from the ASL of Lucca it is learned that in Tuscany for about 20 years no cases of infected patients have been reported.
The ASL was alerted after the first reports of symptoms of the disease such as fever, muscle aches, skin manifestations; the health checks carried out have highlighted outbreaks of ditrichinellosis, or trichinosis, “disease caused by a parasite, the Trichinella, which is a worm that can contaminate the meat of various animals with its larvae. Humans contract the infection through the consumption of infected, uncooked animal meat.
Trichinellae are cylindrical worms, also known as nematodes: it is a parasite that from the intestine can migrate into the muscles, localizing in small subcutaneous cysts. One gets sick only by eating infested meat. In the case of humans, therefore, pork or horse meat, if contaminated. In the animal world, the chain is much more extensive, including cats and dogs.
From the ASL they make it known that it is a rare disease but present all over the world and also in Italy. Due to its rarity and symptoms that can be similar to those of other pathologies it is not easy to recognize. The latest cases in Italy date back to 2011 in Sardinia. Tests that reveal trichinellosis are marked eosinophilia (up to 70%), leukocytosis, increased muscle enzymes (Cpk), serological tests. Definitive for the diagnosis is the positive muscle biopsy for Trichinella.
Continuing, the Health Authority explained that "The machine that was set in motion after the appearance of the first cases, immediately recognized by the infectious disease operating unit of Lucca, allowed to limit the phenomenon and to carry out all the necessary operations prevention, thanks to the commitment of veterinary and food hygiene operators. Now the recognized sick are all well, thanks to the immediate care they have undergone ”.
Concluding the ASL warns, “It is good to remember that it is possible to avoid the risk or contagion of this disease by eating well-cooked meat. Trichinella larvae die with heat: 1 minute at 65 degrees is enough. Freezing is also useful in destroying the larvae: 20-30 days at -15 ° or -30 ° for 6 days. In this way the larvae are destroyed and the onset of the disease is prevented, which has an incubation period of about 8-15 days. If you slaughter yourself, cleaning the tools that have come into contact with the meat, those used for salting or smoking, may not be enough to neutralize the parasite ".
3 January 2013