title: Effect of temperature on the survival of Alaria alata mesocercariae.
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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, hiromi.fuentes@vetmed.uni-leipzig.de.
authors.forename: Hiromi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: González-Fuentes
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hamedy
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koethe
authors.forename: Eberhard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: von Borell
authors.forename: Ernst
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Luecker
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Riehn
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005060:Europe; D005615:Freezing; D008872:Microwaves; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013696:Temperature; D014200:Trematoda / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology*