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Effect of temperature on the survival of Alaria alata mesocercariae

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Abstract

Recent findings of Alaria alata mesocercariae in wild boars and other animals in Europe reinforced the concern about the public health risk posed by this parasite especially if the game meat is insufficiently heated during preparation. Cooking and freezing are effective methods for the inactivation of parasites in meat whereas refrigeration is considered as an essential part of the Good Hygiene Practice. Additionally, microwave dielectric heating may represent an equally effective tool for parasite inactivation. Therefore, isolated vital mesocercariae were examined with respect to their resilience against heating, refrigeration, freezing, and microwave heating. A. alata mesocercariae stored in Ringer’s solution do not survive heating temperatures that exceed 60.0 °C. Similarly, exposure to microwave heating ensured an inactivation of all parasite developmental stages after 90 s of treatment. In contrast, the parasites’ tolerance towards cold is far higher as the mesocercariae survived refrigeration temperatures (4.0 ± 2 °C) in Ringer’s solution for up to 13 days. An effective inactivation by cold is therefore only guaranteed if the infested game meat is frozen to a core temperature of −13.7 °C for a minimum of 2 h at least. Game meat should be handled with the same or even higher caution than meat of husbandry animals since wild animals may be infected with parasites or other zoonotic agents that are not common in livestock. It is therefore of crucial importance that appropriate temperature time protocols are used for the reliable inactivation of these zoonotic agents.

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Acknowledgments

The first author wishes to acknowledge the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) for the doctoral fellowship. For their comprehensive and qualified technical assistance in the present study, we would like to thank Lutz Gumpert, Lia Kieker, Heiko Wellner, and DVM Jasem Saffaf. This work was financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) through the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), grant number 2810HS017, and the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), grant number 1329-514.

Conflict of interest

None of the authors of this manuscript has declared any conflict of interest within the last 3 years which may arise from being named as an author on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    Hiromi González-Fuentes, Ahmad Hamedy, Martin Koethe & Ernst Luecker

  2. Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

    Hiromi González-Fuentes & Eberhard von Borell

  3. Faculty of Life Sciences, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany

    Katharina Riehn

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  1. Hiromi González-Fuentes
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Correspondence to Hiromi González-Fuentes.

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González-Fuentes, H., Hamedy, A., Koethe, M. et al. Effect of temperature on the survival of Alaria alata mesocercariae. Parasitol Res 114, 1179–1187 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-014-4301-2

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