Trichinella spiralis is a viviparous nematode parasite, occurring in rodents, pigs, bears, hyenas and humans, and is responsible for the disease trichinosis. It is sometimes referred to as the "pork worm" due to it being typically encountered in undercooked pork products. It should not be confused with the distantly related pork tapeworm.

Description

Trichinella species, the smallest nematode parasite of humans, has an unusual life cycle, and are one of the most widespread and clinically important parasites in the world. The small adult worms mature in the small intestine of a definitive host, such as a pig. Each adult female produces batches of live larvae, which bore through the intestinal wall, enter the blood (to feed on it) and lymphatic system, and are carried to striated muscle. Once in the muscle, they encyst, or become enclosed in a capsule.

Humans can become infected by eating infected pork, horsemeat, or wild carnivores such as fox, cat, hyena or bear. Juveniles within nurse cells have an anaerobic or facultative anaerobic metabolism, but when they become activated, they adopt the aerobic metabolism characteristics of the adult.

thumb|left|250px|T. spiralis larvae within the [[Thoracic diaphragm|diaphragm muscle of a pig]]

Nurse cell formation in skeletal muscle tissue is mediated by the hypoxic environment surrounding the new vessel formation. The hypoxic environment stimulates muscle cells in the surrounding tissue to upregulate and secrete angiogenic cytokines, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). This allows the migrating T. spiralis larva to enter the myocyte and induce the transformation into the nurse cell. VEGF expression is detected surrounding the nurse cell immediately after nurse cell formation, and the continued secretion of VEGF can maintain the constant state of hypoxia.

Symptoms

The first symptoms may appear between 12 hours and two days after ingestion of infected meat. The migration of adult worms in the intestinal epithelium can cause traumatic damage to the host tissue, and the waste products they excrete can provoke an immunological reaction.

Diagnosis and treatment

Muscle biopsy may be used for trichinosis detection. Several immunodiagnostic tests are also available. Typically, patients are treated with either mebendazole or albendazole, but efficacy of such products is uncertain. Symptoms can be relieved by use of analgesics and corticosteroids.

In the United States, Congress passed the Federal Swine Health Protection Act, restricting the use of uncooked garbage as feed stock for pigs, and creating a voluntary Trichinae Herd Certification Program.

In addition to the reduction in Trichinella prevalence in commercial pork, processing methods also have contributed to the dramatic decline in human trichinellosis associated with pork products. Through the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, the USDA has created guidelines for specific cooking temperatures and times, freezing temperatures and times, and curing methods for processed pork products to reduce the risk of human infection from Trichinella contaminated meat.

Also reported in 2005, the rate of infection from Trichinella spiralis was significantly higher in people living in parts of Europe, Asia, and Southeast Asia than in the United States. However, EU nations employ several strategies for detecting meat infected with Trichinella spiralis. If tests are consistently negative, then a trichinella-free designation is applied to a given meat supply. Rare outbreaks still occur despite this rigorous system: France, Italy, and Poland have reported outbreaks due to eating raw horsemeat. At that time, the parasite was considered endemic in Japan and China, while Korea had recently reported its first human cases of trichinosis.

Economic impact

It was reported in 2009 that political and economic changes had caused an increase in the prevalence and incidence rates of this parasite in many former eastern European countries due to weakened veterinary control on susceptible animals. This complicated the meat trade industry within European Union countries, and exportation of pork outside the EU. The genome size was 58.55 Mbp with an estimated 16,549 genes. The T. spiralis genome is the only known nematode genome to be subject to DNA methylation, an epigenetic mechanism that was not previously thought to exist in nematodes.

See also

  • List of parasites (human)

References

14 "Microbiology: An Introduction 9/e" (2006)

Further reading

  • Dickson Despommier, People, Parasites, and Plowshares: Learning from Our Body's Most Terrifying Invaders, Columbia University Press, 2016 (first edition in 2013), . Chapter 1 on Trichinella spiralis.
  • Fluorescence image of Trichina