The meat on the skewers was poorly cooked: they eat grilled meats and end up with worms in their brains

Les brochettes étaient contaminées. Illustration Pixabay. – Mouhcine Bahassa

On Friday, May 24, 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control warned about consuming wild game. A family was contaminated by parasites after eating poorly cooked bear kebabs.

Prevention is better than cure. And this family will remember it. Americans have been infected with worms after eating undercooked bear skewers, which is why the US Centers for Disease Control, or CDC, made some safety recalls, reports CBS.

Worms in the brain

If its outcome is very recent, the story actually dates back to 2022. Three members of the same American family complain of similar symptoms: fever, severe muscle pain, swelling around the eyes… Typical of a parasite infection.

Six days earlier, they had eaten bear meat at a family gathering. In less than three weeks, two of its members will be hospitalized because of worms, which have also developed in their brains.

Be careful cooking

The skewers, which were undercooked, came from a bear killed by a trapper in Canada. The hunter claimed that his methods made it possible to eradicate parasites and the meat had been frozen for 45 days.

But as a reminder, cold does not kill all the parasites, viruses, larvae and bacteria present in meat. Only one method accessible to consumers allows this: cooking.

"People who eat wild game meat should know that proper cooking is the only reliable way to kill parasites," emphasized the CDC.

Out of danger

After the family's second visit, the doctors identified the origin of their illness. A parasite transmitted through the consumption of black bear meat. The patients were treated with albendazole, which is used to "treat infections caused by worms […] It prevents the worm from absorbing the sugar, causing it to lose energy and die", the hospital tells the Centers for Disease Control.

And if three family members showed symptoms, in reality six people were infected. Some had not even consumed the meat in question, but had simply come into contact with it. Be careful with game.