Personal Injury Law

Wash your hands, cook your meat, live to see another day

By Michelle Mazur

I've talked a bit about my beef with organic products here on barfblog.com before, and after taking Parasitology in vet school, I will probably continue to steer clear of the organic meats isle. Drs. Payne and Dryden did a great job this fall discussing the major parasites that affect food animals such as cattle, pigs, and goats. The purpose of the course was to learn to identify the various parasites affecting these animals, and then treat or prevent them in an appropriate way. Three favorite drugs talked about in the class (Ivermectin, Fenbendazole and Drontel) do a great job of treating/preventing common parasites, but over-use can result in resistance problems.

One fact that was overwhelmingly evident in the Parasitology class is that organic farms don't use these common anti-parasitic drugs, thus they are 'organic.' Although they might be proud to say they didn't use any drugs on their animals, you can bet that those animals are carrying quite a few parasitic friends. These parasites can cause poor animal condition, which means a loss for the rancher, and in some cases these parasites can be transmitted to humans.

Zoonotic parasites are parasites that infect both people and animals. Just as E. coli O157:H7 can be shed from the intestinal tract of animals, so can parasites and their eggs. Handwashing is a necessary practice on farms to keep harmful bacteria from entering our mouths, but our hands could also be contaminated with eggs from a zoonotic parasite. Cryptosporidium, more commonly known as Crypto, can infect young calves and this infection can be easily passed to people tending to them. Until I took this class, I thought the only Crypto threat was contaminated swimming pools.

Another parasite that can affect people is Trichinella. Trichinella larvae encyst in animal tissue and can infect humans if they consume undercooked meat. Luckily a strict surveillance program ensures that Trichinella larvae are not found in pork, but there have been sporadic cases of Trichinosis from eating undercooked bear meat.  I've never eaten bear meat like those crazy Canadians, but this serves as further proof about the dangers of undercooked meat.

A majority of our time in Parasitology lab was spent looking at parasite eggs and adults, as well as sifting through fecal material.  A fecal sample is a great way for a Parasitologist to determine of an animal is infected, because parasite eggs can often be seen under a microscope.  As part of our lab exams we collected study material to reference during the exams, which made for a great opportunity for some awesome binder covers (shown above and left).

Doug's mantra of ‘cook your meat thoroughly and wash your hands' resonates even louder after taking this class.

Full post as published by BarfBlog on January 12, 2010 (boomark / email).