PDA

View Full Version : question about hog hunting and trichinosis



trickyasafox
08-16-2007, 02:38 AM
how do you check a wild hog to see if it is carrying trichinosis? do the glands swell or liver discolor or some tell-tale sign? i want to go on a hog hunt in the next year or so, and figure i should probably start figuring stuff like this out.

if anyone has any good hog hunting links i'd appreciate it.

Ranch Dog
08-16-2007, 08:04 AM
I figure they are have it and just cook them throughly. Not well done, just cooked.

There are a number of hog hunting forums, I don't frequent them, just do a google search for "hog boar hunting".

Boz330
08-16-2007, 08:18 AM
What Ranch Dog said. If you do a search there is probably a temperature to cook to that will kill the bacteria, probably around 180*. You have to do the same thing with bear.

Dug out my Lyman Wild Gourmet cook book and it says to freeze it for 30 days and that will take care of it although cooked well done will do the same thing. They don't give a temperature, but it would be on a meat thermometer.
Hope this helps.

Bob

trickyasafox
08-16-2007, 11:57 AM
thanks!

klausg
08-16-2007, 12:43 PM
tricky-
Trichinosis isn't a bacteria, they are nematodes (roundworms). I'm not sure if there is any simple way to tell if an animal is infected. However as everyone has already pointed out, thorough (no rare pork or bear )cooking kills them all.

-Klaus

Jim
09-03-2007, 09:04 PM
For any pork, 180* (F) kills everything. If it's a big piece of meat, stick a thermometer in it and don't take it out of the oven or off the grill 'till it hits 180 internally.

Denver
09-03-2007, 09:35 PM
The disease to be concerned about with hogs is Brucellosis. It can be transmitted to humans in various ways, but the most common is contact through skin wounds coming in contact with the animals blood. It's certainly easy enough to nick oneself while field dressing an animal.
I met a fellow a couple years back in Florida who was still fighting the disease a year or so later from when he had gotten it. He described it as having a bad case of the flu that never went away completely.

Take care, Denver :castmine:

RugerFan
09-04-2007, 07:44 PM
When gutting and skinning feral hogs, I will wear a pair of those thin latex surgical type gloves just to be on the safe side.

Ricochet
09-04-2007, 10:57 PM
I've gotten to the point where I figure there's probably something you can catch from just about anything. Probably ought to always wear gloves, be careful how you handle it, note what the raw stuff touches, don't let the cooked stuff touch any of the utensils or dishes the raw stuff contacted, be sure the meat gets cooked well.

Little bit of trivia I accidentally turned up a while back is that groundhogs commonly carry a hepadnavirus closely related to Hepatitis B. I started Googling around on hepadnaviruses and found that they're widely distributed in mammals. No info on whether any of those are known to be transmissible to humans, but the key word there would be known, in any case.

We've been learning a good bit of unpleasantness about the transmissability of prions from other mammals to people. Chronic wasting disease in deer and elk is such a prion disease, and rather widespread. Haven't yet heard about that being definitely tied to a human disease, but I'm concerned about it.

Tularemia is a well known risk for rabbit hunters, and several other infections are risks for hunters of squirrels and rabbits.

Probably more important than the direct contact with game animals is the opportunity in warm weather to get bitten by ticks. In the Southeast, archery season is still warm weather. Ticks can carry some nasty bugs. Check for the little critters.

Nothing to panic about, just things to be aware of and to use reasonable precautions against.

leadladen
09-17-2007, 06:15 PM
Trickyasafox
Denver and RugerFan have the right advise.I'm a Floridian and have killed and been on hunts involving LARGE numbers of wild pigs. They are TOUGH,, platewise that is. If you cook wild pork so that it is pallateable,, it will definitely be DONE. Only risk is in the cleaning. The game management areas in this state all provide rubber gloves at their check station skinning locations. One piece of advise I can give you is do not let the smell of your trophy influence your decision on its edidility. Here, we refer to the "smell" of each individual porker as "the FUNK". Some have it,,some don't.Out of the large #### of pigs I have helped consume that was REALLY strong, was a 280# boar I killed with a 44Mag , cast bullet, of course. If you can, stay with the sows for edibillity. But it really tests your willpower to pass on a real "trophy" boar.Enjoy your hunt first,,,,trim the fat on wild pork,,, and worry about the table fare later. GOOD HUNTING to you

spurrit
09-26-2007, 03:40 AM
Call a vet, and have him tell ya. I think what you're looking for are called liver flukes, and they're a wormy lookin' critter residing on the (DUH!) liver.

BD
09-28-2007, 08:17 AM
Although I have only limited experience with the feral hogs so far, one thing has become clear. If your hungry, shoot the liitle ones, about 60 - 80 lb live weight. You can hang them in the fork of a tree to clean them, put them whole in the freezer, put them whole on the grill, and they are very tender and tasty. Besides, those little guys just look like dinner on the hoof. I've been invited to some wild pig roasts where they were serving big old boars and there's just no comparison. Brucellosis is a real issue, I'm not so sure about trichinosis as IIRC from raising domestic pigs, trich requires an intermediate host and it's not that hard to break the lifecylce by moving the hogs from pasture to pasture. I have yet to meet anyone around here who's had trich, or knows of anyone who has had it.
BD

Ghugly
09-29-2007, 12:20 PM
I don't think I trust domestic pork any more than I do wild. If it's pork, well done suits me fine.

Char-Gar
09-30-2007, 09:19 PM
I made the mistake many years ago in College of taking a course in Parasitology. I learned that the common parasite in pork also occures in other animals. Just about any critter you eat, can under some circumstances ,give you some very nasty bugs. So, the idea is to cook meat, all meat enough to kill these nasty things. Wild games doesn't bother me any more than farm raised critters.

Take a course in Parasitology and you will never look at a plate of food the same way again.
Bad mistake!!

BustemAgain
10-01-2007, 01:06 AM
What I remember about parasitology and Swine is that the major danger in eating undercooked pork is encysted Pork Tapeworm. From what I understand it is almost always fatal as in humans they encyst in the brain and by the time you are diagnosed it is to late. I always think of that when eating street food in Mexico and parts further south. Don't screw with undercooked omnivores.

Ricochet
10-01-2007, 02:23 PM
Exactly. Cook all meat until it reaches at least 160 degrees F in the core.

EMC45
10-02-2007, 10:18 AM
I wear gloves when skinning and dressing hogs. Brucellosis can be transmitted by contact with the reproductive organs on a hog. Dress 'em and be careful to not nick yourself. I use the heavy dishwashing gloves. I use the thin latex ones when I sort WWs. And oh yeah the small ones are the best if they are going to the table. Save the big ones for the wall.

spurrit
10-02-2007, 02:19 PM
Use the blue or purple nitrile gloves. They're tougher than latex, and WAY more tactile than dishwashing gloves. They even make textured ones. They're really good when greasing equipment, as you can actually hang onto things. Get the powdered ones.

Junior1942
10-02-2007, 02:51 PM
Use the blue or purple nitrile gloves. They're tougher than latex, and WAY more tactile than dishwashing gloves. They even make textured ones. They're really good when greasing equipment, as you can actually hang onto things. Get the powdered ones.
Get them where?

spurrit
10-02-2007, 02:58 PM
Automotive dept of Wally world (********!) has the blue ones. 50 pairs for about $7, I think. Also, you can get the purple ones at Lowe's.

medic44
10-02-2007, 07:03 PM
I just pick them up at work. You can get them at most drug stores.

jim4065
10-06-2007, 06:32 PM
Automotive dept of Wally world (********!) has the blue ones. 50 pairs for about $7, I think. Also, you can get the purple ones at Lowe's.

Wonder when I started hating Wal-Mart. Must have been in the '70s. Think it may have been when they quit letting me put special order guns on layaway.

Still buy cheap 22's and shotgun ammo from 'em. (********!) :Fire:

wills
10-06-2007, 08:08 PM
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/trichinosis/factsht_trichinosis.htm


How can I prevent trichinellosis?
Cook meat products until the juices run clear or to an internal temperature of 170 o F.
Freeze pork less than 6 inches thick for 20 days at 5 o F to kill any worms.
Cook wild game meat thoroughly. Freezing wild game meats, unlike freezing pork products, even for long periods of time, may not effectively kill all worms.
Cook all meat fed to pigs or other wild animals.
Do not allow hogs to eat uncooked carcasses of other animals, including rats, which may be infected with trichinellosis.
Clean meat grinders thoroughly if you prepare your own ground meats.
Curing (salting), drying, smoking, or microwaving meat does not consistently kill infective worms.