Some family members who shared a meal of bear meat that one of the family members had previously harvested subsequently became infected with brain worms, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In July 2022, the Minnesota Department of Health was notified that a 29-year-old man had been hospitalized multiple times over a two-and-a-half week period with symptoms including fever, severe muscle aches, swelling around the eyes, and other various ailments .
After his second hospitalization, the man told doctors that he had attended a family gathering in South Dakota days earlier, and that one of the meals they shared included kabobs, made from black bear meat that “had been harvested by one of the family members in the north of the country. Saskatchewan.”
The meat was in the freezer for a month and a half before being thawed for the meal. The CDC reported that because the meat was darker in color, it was initially unintentionally served rare. Family members began eating the kabobs but noticed that the meat tasted undercooked, so it was recooked and served again.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Nine family members, mostly from Minnesota but also from South Dakota and Arizona, ate the meal, although some ate only the vegetables, which were cooked and served alongside the bear meat.
Doctors eventually diagnosed the 29-year-old man with trichinellosis, a roundworm that is rare in humans and usually acquired through the consumption of wild game. Once in a human host, the larvae can then move throughout the body into muscle tissue and organs, including the brain.
Five other family members were diagnosed with these frost-resistant worms, including a 12-year-old girl and two other family members who had only eaten the vegetables with meals. A total of three family members were hospitalized and treated with albendazole, which, according to the Mayo Clinic, prevents the worms from absorbing sugar “so the worm loses energy and dies.”
The CDC advised that the only sure way to kill trichinella parasites is to adequately cook the meat containing it to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees F, and reiterated their warning that it can cross-contaminate other foods.
The CDC said estimates of the prevalence of trichinella parasites in wildlife vary widely, but it is believed that up to a quarter of black bears in Canada and Alaska may be infected.
Brain worms made national news earlier this year after presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed that he had contracted a parasitic worm years ago “ate part” of his braincausing potential cognitive problems.
Symptoms of a brainworm infection may include nausea, vomiting, headaches, and seizures. Dr. Céline Gounder told it “CBS mornings.” However, some people who contract the worms may also see no symptoms at all. Gounder added that these parasites usually “get shut down by your immune system and become calcified.”
