The wild positive results
Three wild boars, shot down while hunting during the 2022/23 hunting season that has just begun, were found positive for trichinella. The Veterinary Inspection Services for Food of Animal Origin of the Frosinone Local Health Authority have identified, traced and eliminated the meat of these animals from the food circuit, which was destined for destruction. The animals were hunted in the eastern Apennine area of the province. Trichinella is a parasite that affects mammals, causing "Trichinellosis" in humans, a food-borne disease that can also take on a serious form.
The location of the parasite
«The symptoms, initially intestinal and/or allergic, – explain the ASL – depend on the location of the parasite within the human body as the larvae migrate into the muscles and organs of the person who ingests them. Carriers of the parasite are wild pigs (wild boars) or pigs reared in the wild (sylvatic cycle of the disease), and horses, especially imported ones, whose meat is eaten uncooked in the form of carpaccio». The prevention activity implemented by the Veterinary Services of the ASL of Frosinone (Food Inspection) with the territorial hunting associations (ATC FR1 and FR2), has allowed over time to ensure rapid identification and elimination of subjects at risk. In the last three years, 9 parasitized animals have been identified in the province in 3 outbreaks, including the current one, located in the border mountain areas which have all been eliminated from the food circuit.
Animals and man
In fact, all hunted wild boars must be subjected to trichinoscopic control because the identification of the infected allows the parasite's transmission chain to be interrupted both between animals and above all from animals to humans. The avoidance of this obligation exposes the consumer to contagion and the consequences of the disease, therefore the ASL invites, for food safety, all hunters to contact the veterinary service for the appropriate checks.