Trichinellosis: A Current Public Health Problem

Abstract

Trichinellosis is very rare disease in Islamic countries because of the religious restrictions. We detected one of the worlds largest trichinellosis epidemics affected more than five hundred people in Izmir at the end of 2003. The traditional raw meatball (çi¤köfte) which was contaminated with infected wild boar minced meat and sold by a famous street meatball peddler was the main source of the outbreak and it was caused by Trichinella britovi. The main characteristics of trichinellosis outbreaks has been reviewed in this article. Trichinellosis is zoonotic diseases mainly caused by a number of Trichinella genus. Although T. spiralis is the most common causes this disease which transmitted by mainly consumption of farm pigs and seen in worldwide, T. britovi is also the second most common species transmitted by the consumption of wild boar and horse meat and especially seen in European continent. Trichinella genus is sensitive heating and freezing with the exceptions of arctic specieses that is more resistant to extreme cold conditions. Moreover Trichinella specieses has been detected in not only carnivorous/omnivorous mammals like pigs or wild boar but a number of animals including horses, polar bears unexpectedly as well as cows and sheeps, and non-mammal vertebrata animals like freshwater fishes, crocodiles and some carnivorous birds. In these circumstances restriction of pork or wild boar consumption will not prevent human trichinellosis, but main issues should be obviate the un-or-undercooked meat consumption. This will prevent not only outbreaks of trichinellosis but a number of other zoonoses like toxoplasmosis and some helmintic diseases as well.

Keywords

• Trichinella
• Infection
• Diagnosis
• Treatment