What is dangerous to eat meat from wild boars, bears and other wild animals. The doctor told me

medical director of LabQuest Group of Companies, doctor of clinical laboratory diagnostics, Candidate of Medical Sciences.

“The fact of eating wild animal meat is a mandatory data collection point when entering an infectious disease hospital. Health risks are great, and they are associated primarily with infections that can be transmitted both when carcasses are processed and when meat (muscle or offal) is eaten.”

Many nationalities consume meat that has not been treated at high temperatures, and this product poses a great threat because the retention of infectious pathogens is maximized.

The most common infection is trichinosis. The parasite is found in the muscles of animals such as boars, bears, roe deer.

The disease develops rapidly, has a severe course and is fraught with formidable complications up to lethal outcome. Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain may cause hospitalization in a surgical hospital, and in case of diarrhea, fever and muscle pain – in an infectious hospital.

Diagnosis can be made by identifying the connection with the fact of eating wild meat or mass, if more than one person ate infected meat. Important in the diagnosis will be the determination in the laboratory of antibodies to trichinella.

Treatment should be started as early as possible, as the peculiarity of the disease is the penetration of the parasite into the depths of the muscles, where it becomes inaccessible to antiparasitic drugs. Also, the parasite can get into the brain, eyes and, dying there, lead to more serious consequences.

Also when eating meat from wild animals, you can be infected with echinococcosis. The disease, unlike trichinosis, develops more slowly. The first symptoms in the form of malaise or short-term low temperature are often ignored, meanwhile the parasite from the intestine is absorbed, spreads with the bloodstream and affects internal organs.

Most often the target are parenchymatous organs – liver, lungs, brain. Over time, the parasite multiplies and cysts form in the organs. The peculiarity of echinococcus is that it continues to reproduce inside the cysts, they are covered with hard capsules and increase in size, thereby disrupting the function of the organ.

Diagnosis is made when suspected by ultrasound, CT and other imaging methods and confirmed by laboratory tests.

Teniosis – porcine chain – affects animals that are intermediate hosts for it (wild boar, pig, camel, rabbit, hare). Eating insufficiently heat-treated meat leads to human infection. The disease does not develop immediately, the incubation period is up to three months. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, headaches and dizziness.

It is important that pets, if fed with untreated meat from wild animals, are also infected with parasites and can subsequently become a source of infection for their owners. It is not possible to visually detect parasites and determine the contagiousness of meat on your own – this requires microscopic methods.

Meat that has not passed sanitary and veterinary control can be dangerous with such infections as salmonellosis, brucellosis, tuberculosis, leptospirosis, finnosis. Carcasses of some animals may be a source of heavy metals or other toxic compounds depending on the area where they were caught.

To protect yourself from possible contamination, subject game meat to deep heat treatment. High temperatures destroy parasites. Eliminate salting, smoking and curing of the product.