Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 14:59:46 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Peter Mann Subject: Re: Pork and raptors MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I missed the first part of this thread, but I'll jump in anyway. Gail is correct when she says that human cases of trichinella have become increasingly rare in the US. We used to have many more cases in our swine population, but through vigilant efforts on the part of swine producers, it is almost eliminated in swine. The few cases that are reported each year (generally less than 1 outbreak per year, according to the CDC) are a result of people eating undercooked, infected meat (often sausage) from other mammalian species - such as bear, fox, etc). Now as far as birds go, there is a very closely related worm Tricinella (the normal worm is T. spiralis) that does occur naturally in birds. I could not find much information on this species, and do not know whether it would cause symptoms in raptors, but my guess is that it would not. Peter Mann, DVM Galena, MD ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gail Mackiernan" To: Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2003 11:59 AM Subject: Re: [MDOSPREY] Pork and raptors > Re the question on feeding raw pork to raptors... > > Trichinosis is caused by a parasitic roundworm (Trichinella spiralis) that > is, as George said, virtually unknown in the USA. The larvae of the worm are > encysted in the flesh of the pig and when pork is eaten insufficiently > cooked, the larvae excysts and invades the tissues of the host. The disease > is spread by feeding worm-infested raw or undercooked pork scraps to pigs. > It is rare because very few pigs, at least those raised for commercial > purposes, are fed raw garbage. > > However, it can occur. When I in graduate school in Baltimore in the 1970s, > one of our lab tech's husband ate some sausage that had been made by his > grandmother (apparently from locally-raised pork). He developed trichinosis, > and his symptoms were frightening -- not only severe, all-over body pain in > all his muscles, and high fever, but delusions of persecution, > hallucinations, and seizures. They had to restrain him in his hospital bed. > The local hospital thought he had taken some sort of drug! When they finally > took him over to Hopkins, it still took the doctors a while to diagnose it. > The Hopkins physicians said that none of them, in all their years of > practice at one of the top hospitals in the nation, had ever seen a case of > trichinosis. Strangely, I have forgotten how they treated the infestation > but he did recover eventually, > > However, I would assume that hawks and other birds would not be affected by > the worm, even if it did occur in the pork. It is apparently a parasite of > mammals. > > (I still cook pork really, really well...) > > Gail Mackiernan > Colesville, MD (under 24" of snow!) > gail@mdsg.umd.edu > > ======================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey > ======================================================================= ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================