Trichinella, a parasite that once posed a major food safety risk in the commercial pork supply, is no longer a concern, say Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists who have documented the absence of infection by Trichinella.
ARS and the Animal and USDA’s Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) conducted a national survey by sampling 3.2 million pigs raised under the U.S. Pork Quality Assurance Plus (PQA+) program and found zero animals infected with Trichinella. These results are consistent with international food safety guidelines for Trichinella to be considered a “negligible risk for public health,” USDA reports.
Modern pork production systems effectively minimize risk of exposure to this parasite. However, until now, the absence of Trichinella infection has never been verified through national testing. ARS researchers pursued this study to determine if the PQA+ program eliminates the risk of Trichinella exposure in commercial pork, addressing demands of the U.S. export market.
PQA+ is an education and certification program designed by the U.S. pork industry to help pig farmers and their employees continually improve production practices. The program addresses food safety, animal well-being, environmental stewardship, worker safety, and public health. Many of the provisions for mitigating risk of Trichinella exposure are based on research conducted by ARS scientists, USDA reports.
PQA+ includes five best management practices for prevention of exposure to Trichinella:
- Follow proper feed biosecurity protocols.
- Prevent exposure to rodents, wildlife, and birds.
- Refrain from feeding raw food waste of animal origin to swine.
- Promptly remove and properly dispose of swine carcasses.
- Document animal arrivals and departures from PQA+ production sites.
What Did the Study Discover?
In the study by ARS researchers, 3.2-million plus pigs across 12 processing locations were tested over a period of 54 months. Parasites were not detected in any of the diagnostic samples, providing a 95% confidence in a Trichinella prevalence of less than 1 in 1 million pigs.
“The occurrence of Trichinella in pork once posed a major food safety risk in many countries, justifying decades of effort expended on controlling this parasite,” USDA explained.
Data obtained from testing support the conclusion that pork from pigs managed under the PQA+ program do not pose a public health risk.
“The surveillance data support the assertion that the U.S. PQA+ program effectively mitigates risk for Trichinella infection in pigs,” Benjamin Rosenthal, research leader of the ARS Animal Parasitic Disease Laboratory, said in a release. “It is equally important to note that the data could be useful for future food safety decisions, including hazard analysis decisions.”
USDA reports that PQA+ guidelines and implementation details follow those for controlled management described by the World Organization for Animal Health and guidelines of the International Commission on Trichinellosis. A total of 11 U.S. pork processing companies, including 30 locations in 12 states, participated in the survey. There are currently more than 63,000 U.S. pork producers certified under PQA+.
This research first appeared in Food and Waterborne Parasitology.
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