Veterinary Parasitology 194 (2013) 110–112 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Veterinary Parasitology jou rn al h om epa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/vetpar How safe is the meat inspection based on artificial digestion of pooled samples for Trichinella in pork? A scenario from wildlife to a human patient in a non-endemic region of Europe Joke van der Giessen a,* , Frits Franssen a , Manoj Fonville a , Titia Kortbeek a , Pieter Beckers b , Paulien Tolsma c , Olaf Stenvers d , Peter Teunis a , Katsuhisa Takumi a a National Institute for Public Health and The Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands b University Medical Center St. Radboud, Nijmegen, The Netherlands c Municipal Health Service “Hart voor Brabant”, ‘s Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands d Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), Utrecht, The Netherlands a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Sample testing Trichinella Netherlands Risk factors Wildlife reservoir a b s t r a c t The occurrence of trichinellosis in a resident of the Netherlands prompted us to exam- ine the likelihood of this originating from infected rats in spite of prevailing biosecurity and testing procedures. In so doing, we sought to calculate the possible risks for trichinel- losis in countries deemed non-endemic. The infection risk was determined by simulating a scenario from a reservoir of minimally contaminated wildlife to pigs to humans. Results indicate that humans might become infected even in the event that artificial digestion had been performed on individually tested pig carcasses. Our conclusions justify reconsider- ing Trichinella control strategies based on the current testing protocol, and emphasize the importance of proper cooking as further insurance against human infection. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In Europe, control of Trichinella in susceptible ani- mals destined for human consumption is mandatory and requires detection in individual carcasses after slaughter, or routine monitoring of certain sanitary criteria as described by EU legislation 2075/2005 (European Commission, 2005). To date, most countries in the EU employ individual carcass control of commercially raised pigs for export purposes. The most important source of human trichinellosis in Europe is consumption of improperly processed infected meat from pigs, horses and wild boars (Pozio et al., 2009). * Corresponding author. E-mail address: joke.van.der.giessen@rivm.nl (J. van der Giessen). The risk of human trichinellosis depends on the dose ingested, and can range from an asymptomatic infection to severe illness and mortality. In the Netherlands and other western European countries, clinical illness in humans has been absent for decades as a result of the consumption of domestically industrialized, indoor raised pork meat. In wildlife, however, species of Trichinella persist in the Netherlands (Van der Giessen et al., 2001) as is true for most EU countries. Even low infection levels in wildlife may be transmitted to swine and then to humans as was shown by a risk assessment described by Takumi et al. (2009). In 2009, a 69 year old Dutch male presented in a Dutch district hospital showing loss of muscle power in the lower extremities. Within a few days of admission, he developed capillary leak syndrome with severe oedema, hypoalbuminemia and rhabdomyolysis. The patient 0304-4017/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2013.01.032