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Prevention
By Mayo Clinic staffThe best defense against trichinosis is proper food preparation. Follow these tips to avoid trichinosis:
- Avoid undercooked pork, walrus, horse, bear or other wild-animal meat. Be sure the meat is cooked to an internal temperature of 170 F (77 C) throughout before eating it. Even though trichinella are less common in pork, it's better not to eat pork if it hasn't been cooked to this temperature.
- Have wild-animal meat frozen or irradiated. Trichinosis can occur in any meat-eating mammal. Irradiation will kill parasites in wild-animal meat, and deep-freezing for three weeks kills trichinella in some meats. However, trichinella in bear meat does not die by freezing, even over a long period. Neither irradiation nor freezing is necessary if you ensure that the meat is thoroughly cooked.
- Other processing methods don't kill parasites. Other methods of meat processing or preserving, such as smoking and pickling, don't kill trichinella parasites in infected meat.
- Clean meat grinders thoroughly. If you grind your own meat, make sure the grinder is cleaned after each use.
References
- Parasitic roundworm diseases: Trichinosis. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/roundwor.htm. Accessed Dec. 17, 2009.
- Trichinellosis. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/trichinosis/factsht_trichinosis.htm. Accessed Dec. 17, 2009.
- Weller PF, et al. Trichinellosis. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Dec. 17, 2009.
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