Effect of low dose irradiation on Trichinella isolates

Irradiation should be an effective and safe method for reducing the risk of human trichinellosis. With the existence of different Trichinella phenotypes, however, parasite strains with different gene pools may exhibit different radiosensitivity. Studies were performed using the rat as a laboratory animal for testing Trichinella spiralis isolated from different hosts from one geographic region. The results showed no unique radioresistance of the strains. Although the effective dose of irradiation (i.e. the dose required for total blocking of development of muscle larvae) for most isolates was 0.6kGy, that dose did not affect the viability of Trichinella larvae of all strains. Two strains, tested at doses only up to 0.6 kGy, had their reproductive capacities reduced by more than 10,000-fold as a result of exposure to irradiation. On the other hand, strains of Trichinella isolated in a different region from different hosts and belonging to different taxa (T. spiralis, T. nativa, T. nelsoni, putative European T. nelsoni = T3) were similarly more radiosensitive when tested in mice. A dose of 0.2 kGy prevented the production of larval progeny of all but one strain. The results of the experiments performed with the same T. spiralis strain on two different laboratory hosts (rat and mouse) showed unequivocally that the different results of the former experiments were attributable to the laboratory host used. The laboratory rat was found to be more sensitive in a bioassay for monitoring Trichinella larvae viability. It is concluded that low dose irradiation, 0.3-0.6 kGy, of hog carcasses can provide a substantial margin of safety for human consumption of pork heavily infected with Trichinella. However, irradiation procedures should be complemented by health education, improvement in sanitary measures on farms raising pigs and improvement in diagnosing infections in animals. Isolation of the domestic transmission cycle from the wildlife transmission cycle is also important. (author). 17 refs, 5 tabs