Trichinella in wild boars

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Devo
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Post by Devo » Tue Nov 11, 2014 03:03

With these being raised on a farm is the risk of Trichinella any less then say one that is out in the wild?
This is kind of neat.
http://wildboarcanada.ca/#sthash.pc9bmpGv.dpbs
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Post by redzed » Tue Nov 11, 2014 05:07

Devo wrote:With these being raised on a farm is the risk of Trichinella any less then say one that is out in the wild?
That is a good question and one that I have been giving some thought to. While this boar was raised on a farm, they run around on around 20 acres and are quite wild and cautious of humans. My boar was supposed to be butchered two weeks ago but she was difficult to corral even though they enticed her with food. And these things will eat just about anything, including dead rats, so trichinae is a possibility. For this reason I am not sure whether I will be making any dry-cured products with the meat. For starters I will be making some kabanosy and then the meat will stay frozen for a couple of months since I will be away from my grinder during that time. One of my chest freezers drops to -23C so I might be safe, but will study the issue further.
Last edited by redzed on Tue Nov 11, 2014 23:57, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Butterbean » Tue Nov 11, 2014 15:28

redzed wrote:
Devo wrote:With these being raised on a farm is the risk of Trichinella any less then say one that is out in the wild?
That is a good question and one that I have been giving some thought to. While this boar was raised on a farm, they run around on around 20 acres and are quite wild and cautious of humans. My boar was supposed to be butchered two weeks ago but she was difficult to corral even though they enticed her with food. And these things will eat just about anything, including dead rats, so trichinae is a possibility. For this reason I am not sure whether I will be making any dry-cured products with the meat. For starters I will be making some kabanosy and then the meat will stay frozen for a couple of months since I will be away from my grinder during that time. One of my chest freezers drops to 23C so I might be safe, but will study the issue further.
I would err on the side of caution and treat it as though it did. Pigs are opportunists and will eat whatever and there is a lot of stuff they could find on 20 acres to feed on.

You don't hear much about trichinosis anymore but with the free-range pigs becoming more popular I wouldn't be surprised to see more of it in our future.
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Post by STICKSTRING » Tue Nov 11, 2014 19:24

Butterbean wrote:
redzed wrote:
Devo wrote:With these being raised on a farm is the risk of Trichinella any less then say one that is out in the wild?
That is a good question and one that I have been giving some thought to. While this boar was raised on a farm, they run around on around 20 acres and are quite wild and cautious of humans. My boar was supposed to be butchered two weeks ago but she was difficult to corral even though they enticed her with food. And these things will eat just about anything, including dead rats, so trichinae is a possibility. For this reason I am not sure whether I will be making any dry-cured products with the meat. For starters I will be making some kabanosy and then the meat will stay frozen for a couple of months since I will be away from my grinder during that time. One of my chest freezers drops to 23C so I might be safe, but will study the issue further.
I would err on the side of caution and treat it as though it did. Pigs are opportunists and will eat whatever and there is a lot of stuff they could find on 20 acres to feed on.

You don't hear much about trichinosis anymore but with the free-range pigs becoming more popular I wouldn't be surprised to see more of it in our future.
Yes, but is it not true that freezing pork for a month or more at -10f will kill the infected meat? I hunt and harvest ALOT of wild hogs here in California, and use these hogs on occasion for dried sausage. From what I have read and learned, when i butcher my hogs, whatever meat I choose to use for dry sausage, I cube up the meat into "grinder size", and vacuum seal. Then put all bags into my box freezer which holds pretty close to -10 to -15, and leave alone for a month and half to 2 months.
Have I been doing this wrong or unsafe this whole time? Thank fully, I have never gotten anyone sick.
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Post by Devo » Tue Nov 11, 2014 20:26

I did a little reading from the http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/trichinae/ ... _sheet.htm
This might help others to understand.

Where fresh pork is not tested for trichinae, as is the case in the U.S., alternative methods are used to prevent exposure of humans to potentially contaminated product. These include processing methods such as cooking, freezing and curing along with recommendations to the consumer concerning requirements for thorough cooking.

Cooking - Commercial preparation of pork products by cooking requires that meat be heated to internal temperatures which have been shown to inactivate trichinae. For example, Trichinella spiralis is killed in 47 minutes at 52° C (125.6° F), in 6 minutes at 55° C (131° F), and in < 1 minute at

60° C (140° F). It should be noted that these times and temperatures apply only when the product reaches and maintains temperatures evenly distributed throughout the meat. Alternative methods of heating, particularly the use of microwaves, have been shown to give different results, with parasites not completely inactivated when product was heated to reach a prescribed end-point temperature. The U.S. Code of Federal Regulations for processed pork products reflects experimental data, and requires pork to be cooked for 2 hours at 52.2° C (126° F), for 15 minutes at 55.6° C (132° F), and for 1 minute at 60° C (140° F).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that consumers of fresh pork cook the product to an internal temperature of 71° C or 160° F. Although this is considerably higher than temperatures at which trichinae are killed (about 55° C or 131° F), it allows for different methods of cooking which do not always result in even distribution of temperature throughout the meat. It should be noted that heating to 77° C (171° F) or 82° C (180° F) was not completely effective when cooking was performed using microwaves.

Freezing - Experiments have been performed to determine the effect of cold temperatures on the survival of T. spiralis in pork. Predicted times required to kill trichinae were 8 minutes at -20° C (-4° F), 64 minutes at -15° C (5° F), and 4 days at -10° C (14° F). Trichinae were killed instantaneously at -23.3° C (-10° F). The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Code of Federal Regulations, requires that pork intended for use in processed products be frozen at -17.8° C (0° F) for 106 hours, at -20.6° C (-5° F) for 82 hours, at -23.3° C (-10° F) for 63 hours, at -26.1° C

(-15° F) for 48 hours, at -28.9° C (-20° F) for 35 hours, at -31.7° C (-25° F) for 22 hours, at

-34.5° C (-30° F) for 8 hours, and at -37.2° C (-35° F) for 0.5 hours. These extended times take into account the amount of time required for temperature to equalize within the meat along with a margin of safety.

Curing - There are a great variety of processes used to prepare cured pork products (sausages, hams, pork shoulder, and other ready-to-eat products). Most processes currently used have been tested to determine their efficiency in killing trichinae. In the curing process, product is coated or injected with a salt mixture and allowed to equalize at refrigerated temperatures. Following equalization, product is dried or smoked and dried at various temperature/time combinations which have been shown to inactivate trichinae. The curing process involves the interaction of salt, temperature and drying times to reach a desired water activity, percent moisture, or brine concentration. Unfortunately, no single or even combination of parameters achieved by curing has been shown to correlate definitively with trichinae inactivation. All cured products should conform in process to one of many published regulations, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Code of Federal Regulations Title 9, Chapter III, §318.10.
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Post by Cabonaia » Tue Nov 11, 2014 21:10

Shuswap wrote:
redzed wrote:My boar was supposed to be butchered two weeks ago but she was difficult to corral even though they enticed her with food.
Exactly why we gave up raising a couple of pigs each year - loading them in the truck to take to the slaughter house was a nightmare, so bad the hams were streaked with broken blood vessels from the battle :evil:
Hi Shuswap - Last year I helped a friend load a very resistant 300+ lb. hog into my horse trailer. At one point we had 14 people trying to coax it in! Eventually a couple of very big guys lifted it in. An older fellow fell and hurt his knee. What a fiasco. The meat was somewhat bloodshot as a result of all the turmoil. But it was still good - I know because I butchered it after it was slaughtered.

I soon had the same task at hand with two pigs of my own, and no one to help me. I threw together a chute between the pen and the trailer, and started feeding them in the trailer. When it was time to go, I swung the door shut and that was that. Learned this on a pig forum on the internet. For pigs ranging in a bigger area, you just park the trailer in there and put feed in it. You could try something like this if you decided to get back to raising your own. Just a suggestion!

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Post by Shuswap » Tue Nov 11, 2014 21:13

Devo, I liked what that paper had to say about Canada
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Post by Shuswap » Tue Nov 11, 2014 23:19

Jeff - we had read all the tips for loading out pigs but soon learned that raising egg layers and meat birds was a heck of a lot easier and more profitable.
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Post by Butterbean » Wed Nov 12, 2014 00:28

STICKSTRING wrote:
Butterbean wrote:
redzed wrote:
Devo wrote:With these being raised on a farm is the risk of Trichinella any less then say one that is out in the wild?
That is a good question and one that I have been giving some thought to. While this boar was raised on a farm, they run around on around 20 acres and are quite wild and cautious of humans. My boar was supposed to be butchered two weeks ago but she was difficult to corral even though they enticed her with food. And these things will eat just about anything, including dead rats, so trichinae is a possibility. For this reason I am not sure whether I will be making any dry-cured products with the meat. For starters I will be making some kabanosy and then the meat will stay frozen for a couple of months since I will be away from my grinder during that time. One of my chest freezers drops to 23C so I might be safe, but will study the issue further.
I would err on the side of caution and treat it as though it did. Pigs are opportunists and will eat whatever and there is a lot of stuff they could find on 20 acres to feed on.

You don't hear much about trichinosis anymore but with the free-range pigs becoming more popular I wouldn't be surprised to see more of it in our future.
Yes, but is it not true that freezing pork for a month or more at -10f will kill the infected meat? I hunt and harvest ALOT of wild hogs here in California, and use these hogs on occasion for dried sausage. From what I have read and learned, when i butcher my hogs, whatever meat I choose to use for dry sausage, I cube up the meat into "grinder size", and vacuum seal. Then put all bags into my box freezer which holds pretty close to -10 to -15, and leave alone for a month and half to 2 months.
Have I been doing this wrong or unsafe this whole time? Thank fully, I have never gotten anyone sick.
I'm not saying you can't, I'm saying I would treat it as though it did have trich and treat it accordingly. Not everyone understands the measures to get rid of trich and with more people using it I believe we will see more cases of trichinosis in people. For every knowledgeable person as yourself I am sure there are scores who do not know this or do not think it matters.
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Post by Cabonaia » Wed Nov 12, 2014 00:29

Shuswap wrote:Jeff - we had read all the tips for loading out pigs but soon learned that raising egg layers and meat birds was a heck of a lot easier and more profitable.
Having never attempted to make money off of pigs or meat birds, I will definitely trust you on that.
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Post by NorthFork » Wed Nov 12, 2014 13:01

redzed,
You need to be careful with any meat from an animal that runs wild in our geographic areas (Eastern US and Canada and in AK). The sub-species Trichinella nativa is quite common in these areas (and has been detected in some mid to eastern locals). The problem with this particular sub-species is that it is essentially impervious to freezing and will still be viable when thawed. As with other species it is not destroyed by curing, etc. It is destroyed by heat and irradiation--here is a link with some good info for the Canadian regions (but also applies to all areas with this particular sub-species)--

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1800556/


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Post by Devo » Wed Nov 12, 2014 20:46

Very good read Northfork
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Post by redzed » Thu Nov 13, 2014 22:19

Definately something to consider. I did a bit of research on the subject, and it has been determined that trichinella nativa is resistant to freezing in hibernating animals because they carry proteins in their bodies that don't allow the formation of frost crystals. That is why these reports about bear meat containing trichinella makes sensed. There was also a European study where they infected wild boars with the several strains of trichinella and found that they are not a favourable host to nativa. Other strains thrive in wild boars and it is a problem and concern in Europe. In Poland all boars killed by hunters are subject to inspection by authorities, as are boars that are raised on farms.
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Post by markjass » Fri Nov 14, 2014 22:35

Interesting comments. I know next to nothing about Trichinosis. Can the larve be seen by the naked eye?

from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinosis

Between 2002 and 2007, 11 cases were reported to CDC each year on average in the United States;[2] these were mostly the result of eating undercooked game, bear meat, or home-reared pigs. It is common in developing countries where meat fed to pigs is raw or undercooked, but many cases also come from developed countries in Europe and North America,[clarification needed] where raw or undercooked pork and wild game may be consumed as delicacies.[3]

Also from the same article:
Larvae may be killed by the heating or irradiation of raw meat. Freezing is only usually effective for T. spiralis, since other species, such as T. nativa, are freeze resistant and can survive long-term freezing.
Do no harm. Margerine is the biggest food crime
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Post by Pete » Fri Nov 14, 2014 23:39

Excellent post Devo, very informative.
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