If you’re going to eat walrus, make it well

CDC says to cook thoroughly because of trichinosis threat

ANCHORAGE, Alaska— If walrus is in your dinner plans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends youmake sure it’swell done.

The federal health agency warned of the effects of undercooked game meat after two outbreaks of trichinosis over the last year in western Alaska. The outbreaks sickened 10 people. All have fully recovered.

It was the first multiplecase outbreaks of trichinosis associated with walrus, which can only be hunted by Alaska Natives for subsistence or handicraft purposes, since 1992.

The CDC in its weekly morbidity and mortality report urged health care givers to consider consumption of wild game when evaluating suspected trichinosis cases. The agency also said public health messages should communicate ways to evaluate the risk of traditional methods of preparing and storing food.

“Some of these methods can be inconsistent with public-health best practices,” the agency said.

Trichinosis is contracted by eating raw or undercooked meat from animals infected with amicroscopic roundworm. High heat kills the parasite.

Historically, the disease was most frequently associated with eating undercooked pork. Since the late 1990s, wild game is the suspected cause in most cases.

Often in Alaska, it’s black bear or polar bear meat. However, among the 241 trichinosis cases reported in Alaska since 1975, 24 were associated with eating undercooked seal and 100 were tied towalrus.

In the recent cases, a girl in mid-August reported pain and swelling in her legs, difficultly walking, an itchy rash, fever and muscle pain. Blood tests found that she, her brother and father had symptoms of parasitic infection. All three had eaten walrus on July 17 that was pan-fried to “medium.”

In September, staff at a Nome hospital treated the girl’s uncle and aunt about a week after they ate rawwalrus. Alaska health officials counseled them and noted that the parasite in Arctic species can’t be killed by smoking, drying or fermenting the meat.

The outbreak prompted a public service campaign warning of trichinosis before the springwalrus hunt.

In May, as the campaign began, state health officials were notified of anoutbreak in a Norton Sound coastal community 100 miles from the first village. A man suffering severe muscle and joint pain received treatment inNome.

He and four people from neighboring households had shared walrus boiled for an hour, which fully cooked the exterior but left the interior undercooked or raw, a taste and texture many people prefer.

Two people tested positive for trichinosis. Three showed symptoms but may have tested negative because of the time elapsed between infection and testing.