Infect Bear Meat
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Travellers' gut reaction
French infected after dining on bear meat
Tom Blackwell, National Post
Published: Monday, December 14, 2009
For the second time in four years, health authorities in France have identified an outbreak of the parasitical illness trichinosis from an unusual source: bear meat devoured by French travellers in northern Canada.
The grizzly that ended up as steaks, stew and even "grizzly-bear Bolognese" had been threatening an Inuit camp on the Nunavut shore when it was shot by rangers, with the carcass later divided up among locals and visitors.
In 2005, 19 French travellers got sick after eating black bear in Labrador, while two others caught trichinosis from a polar bear in Greenland a few years earlier.
A Paris-based expert who investigated the outbreaks attributes the spate of bear-meat illness among his compatriots to the French culinary penchant for trying unconventional meats, and either eating them raw or cooking them very little.
One of the French adventurers -- on a sailing trip across the Arctic -- ended up hospitalized for 11 days after digesting the tainted food in September, though she avoided the most serious heart and brain complications of the infection.
"It's quite fascinating to see that French people seem quite fond of bear meat," Dr. Jean Dupouy-Camet, head of a trichinosis-tracking program, said in an interview from Paris. "French people travelling abroad like to consume exotic meats ... [And] they are usually fond of raw meat: steak tartare."
But the latest episode was not confined to the French sailors. Members of another North-West Passage sailing expedition, headed by a Canadian, ate some of the same meat and two of them also became ill.
"It was an odd thing. We ate the bear, and the grizzly kind of came back to haunt us," said Cameron Dueck, a Manitoba native who led the Open Passage expedition. "It was incredible cramping of muscles, and real fever: freezing and sweating, freezing and sweating."
Mr. Dueck, who lives in Hong Kong, said he had only just finished drug therapy for the infection.
Meanwhile, newly published federal research indicates the parasite worm that causes the disease, trichinella, is present in 15 Canadian species, from walrus to cougars.
The worm enters the gastro-intestinal system, then migrates to other parts of the body. Most patients have few or relatively mild symptoms, but it can sometimes cause serious complications, including cardiac infections and brain damage. It used to be found widely in pork, but farming practices have more or less eliminated that threat in the industrialized world, Dr. Dupouy-Camet said.
The disease is endemic in northern Canada, though. The rate of 11 cases per 100,000 in the native population is 200 times the national Canadian rate, according to a paper just published in the online journal Eurosurveilance by the French physician and Alvin Gajadhar, a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) veterinarian.
It is most common for Inuit to contract the disease from eating walrus, which they consume fermented, frozen or air-dried, as opposed to bear, which they cook.
The five French sailors, on the yacht Baloum Gwen, were crossing the NorthWest Passage from the Aleutian Islands west of Alaska to Greenland in the east. The contamination was traced back to grizzly bear meat they ate -- barbecued or pan-fried -- in the Cambridge Bay area of Nunavut. All five got sick.
French infected after dining on bear meat
Tom Blackwell, National Post
Published: Monday, December 14, 2009
For the second time in four years, health authorities in France have identified an outbreak of the parasitical illness trichinosis from an unusual source: bear meat devoured by French travellers in northern Canada.
The grizzly that ended up as steaks, stew and even "grizzly-bear Bolognese" had been threatening an Inuit camp on the Nunavut shore when it was shot by rangers, with the carcass later divided up among locals and visitors.
In 2005, 19 French travellers got sick after eating black bear in Labrador, while two others caught trichinosis from a polar bear in Greenland a few years earlier.
A Paris-based expert who investigated the outbreaks attributes the spate of bear-meat illness among his compatriots to the French culinary penchant for trying unconventional meats, and either eating them raw or cooking them very little.
One of the French adventurers -- on a sailing trip across the Arctic -- ended up hospitalized for 11 days after digesting the tainted food in September, though she avoided the most serious heart and brain complications of the infection.
"It's quite fascinating to see that French people seem quite fond of bear meat," Dr. Jean Dupouy-Camet, head of a trichinosis-tracking program, said in an interview from Paris. "French people travelling abroad like to consume exotic meats ... [And] they are usually fond of raw meat: steak tartare."
But the latest episode was not confined to the French sailors. Members of another North-West Passage sailing expedition, headed by a Canadian, ate some of the same meat and two of them also became ill.
"It was an odd thing. We ate the bear, and the grizzly kind of came back to haunt us," said Cameron Dueck, a Manitoba native who led the Open Passage expedition. "It was incredible cramping of muscles, and real fever: freezing and sweating, freezing and sweating."
Mr. Dueck, who lives in Hong Kong, said he had only just finished drug therapy for the infection.
Meanwhile, newly published federal research indicates the parasite worm that causes the disease, trichinella, is present in 15 Canadian species, from walrus to cougars.
The worm enters the gastro-intestinal system, then migrates to other parts of the body. Most patients have few or relatively mild symptoms, but it can sometimes cause serious complications, including cardiac infections and brain damage. It used to be found widely in pork, but farming practices have more or less eliminated that threat in the industrialized world, Dr. Dupouy-Camet said.
The disease is endemic in northern Canada, though. The rate of 11 cases per 100,000 in the native population is 200 times the national Canadian rate, according to a paper just published in the online journal Eurosurveilance by the French physician and Alvin Gajadhar, a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) veterinarian.
It is most common for Inuit to contract the disease from eating walrus, which they consume fermented, frozen or air-dried, as opposed to bear, which they cook.
The five French sailors, on the yacht Baloum Gwen, were crossing the NorthWest Passage from the Aleutian Islands west of Alaska to Greenland in the east. The contamination was traced back to grizzly bear meat they ate -- barbecued or pan-fried -- in the Cambridge Bay area of Nunavut. All five got sick.
and talk about exaggeration- trichinosis is ROUNDWORM, people- commonly found in pigs AND GAME and EASILY PREVENTED by COOKING THE MEAT thoroughly- the infection itself is also easily treatable- it's THEIR OWN culinary "tastes" that brought this on- WHY DOES THIS MAKE NEWS????????
- Location
- not sure yet
The French like to eat things very rare, but not a good idea with some meats.
There is nothing wrong with eating rare venison but bear needs to be cooked all the way through.
There is nothing wrong with eating rare venison but bear needs to be cooked all the way through.
- Location
- my heart in the blue sea
beuark!!
t-star is right, it occurs in bears the same as pork. I just finished reading "My War North of 80" about German Arctic weather stations in WWII. Several men died and several were seriously ill after eating an infected Polar Bare rare. More recently, my wife works in the medical field. In the '80's a local person died after eating bear meat cooked rare.
- Location
- Hillbilly shack in the boonies
No garbage bears, and as everyone is saying , cook it like it was pork or chickey
trichinosis is ROUNDWORM!? ..easily treatable.!?
Somebody....please shoot me and put me out of my misery!
Or...Check this thread;
http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=275465
trichinosis is ROUNDWORM!? ..easily treatable.!?
Somebody....please shoot me and put me out of my misery!
they don't have corticosteroids and aspirin in toronto?that's where you start-to relieve the symtoms and menetezol to start curing the infection- life cycle is about 7-10 days i guess unless you're french, then it makes the papers same as swine flu
Not at all. Only some does. Rare and raw venison is fine. Same with duck and goose (those without rice breast). I do a canvasback sashimi that is quite tasty and regularly make venison carpaccio (raw thin slices of venison).
Trichinosis larvae can be killed by cooking to an internal temp of 165 OR by cooking and holding the meat at much lower temps for longer periods of time. You can still have med rare bear, you just need to find a way of holding it at that temp for 5-6 minutes.
TheCoachZed
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I don't understand people being scared of bear meat. It's easy to cook and it tastes great.
Oh well . . . more for me!
Oh well . . . more for me!
bearkilr
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Nowhere, ......just past the middle
Dr. t-star:
Trichinosis is NOT easily treatable in advanced stages. There is no medication I'm aware of that kills the larvae once it has migrated to the muscle tissue.
It is also difficult to diagnose at times.
I've checked into this matter quite extensively due to my profession. I've also read that freezing will not kill certain types of trichinosis, such as the ones in bear meat. Only cooking at min.140'F internal temp will kill them.
Many countries, especially European, that still cure meat by cold smoke will do routine Trichinosis inspection. Usually, they take a piece of the diaphragm, squish it between 2 glass plates and inspect under a microscope.
bearkilr
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Nowhere, ......just past the middle
That could also be from eating Polar bear liver, death via Vitamin A poisoning.
No, on the venison and moose. Trichinosis is typically a disease of animals that eat meat -- pigs included (they might eat infected rodents -- which also eat meat).
Raw seal is quite good. I like mine cooked rare -- seared on the outside but still cool in the center. Most people can't get past the fact that the raw/rare meat is nearly black in color (lotsa hemoglobin in there to hold oxygen for extended diving sessions).
