TRICHINIASIS. 



[The following article ou TrichinfP and Trichiniasis was contributed by Dr. D. E. Salmon, Chief of the 

 Bureau of Animal Inrtustrj', to the report of the Commission, of which he was a member, appointed 

 by the President to investigate the condition of the swiue imlustry, and the pork product of the ■ 

 United States. It embraces the researches which have been made in regard to this subject up to 

 this time. J 



EXTENT OF TRICHINIASIS IN AMEKICA AND EUROPE. 



This subject being, in tbe present attitude of certain foreign Govern- 

 ments in regard to American pork products, tbe most important of all tbe 

 questions tbat have received our attention, we have given it a very care- 

 ful consideration. The alleged frequency of tricbiuiasis in American 

 bogs has been the reason insisted upon by tbe various countries which 

 have prohibited the importation of such products; for, while it is true 

 that other objections have been advanced, particularly in France, none 

 of these have sufficient foundation in fact to stand the test of even a 

 superficial examination. It is, however, not a question of the preva- 

 lence of trichiniasis here and its absence in other countries, since this 

 parasite has been found infecting tbe hogs and other tiesh-eatiiig an- 

 imals in the most widely separated portious of the earth. Dr. Mausou 

 examined 2.55 specimens of Ciiiuese pork and found 2 or nearly 1 

 per cent, infected.* Dr. Wartable has described epidemics near the 

 sources of the Jordan resulting from eating the tiesb of the wild boar,t 

 and in every European country in which inspections have been made 

 a very considerable })roportion of tricbinous animals have been dis- 

 covered. 



Certain writers have pretended that tbe animals of France have never 

 been affected with trichiuiasis,| but this conclusion seems to have been 

 reached without any investigations. A large ])roi)ortion of the rats of 

 Paris were long since found to be infected, § and in 1879 a serious epi- 

 demicof trichiniasis, knownas thatofCrepy-enValois, occurred, in which 

 sixteen persons sickened from eating the tiesb of a native animal. || 



That trichin.e also exist in America and infest a small proportion of 

 American hogs is a fact that must be admitted, but it is a more diffi- 

 cult matter to compare the frequency of American and European infec- 



*Iaip. Customs. Med. Report, Sliangluii, XXI (1881), p. 2«. 



+ Laiicet, August 4, 1883. 



t J. Chatin : La trichine ct la trichinoso. 



$ Davaine: Traitd <lcs entozoaires, &c., p. 755. 



II Gazette des H6pitaux, Februarv "20, 1879. 



am 



