Report of the Scientific Committee of AESAN in regard to the risk of trichinosis through suckling pig meat consumption

Trichinosis is a zoonosis due to nematodes of the genus Trichinella, especially T. spiralis and infections to human beings occur by the consumption of raw or undercooked infected meat and certain meat products of different origins, mainly pork, boar and horse. Commission Regulation (EC) No 2075/2005 laying down specific rules on official controls for Trichinella in meat establishes that the carcases of domestic swine shall be systematically sampled in slaughterhouses as part of the post mortem examination. AESAN Executive Director has requested the Scientific Committee for a report on the risk of trichinosis transmission to humans by consumption of meat from suckling pigs slaughtered in their first weeks of life, (...) (...) Besides, in Spain, suckling pigs are traditionally slaughtered at 3 to 5 weeks of age with the only purpose of cooking the carcases afterwards. At this age, the digestive system of suckling pigs (...)On the other hand, newborn larvae of Trichinella do not acquire their infectious capacity till the day 15 to 20 post-infection. Therefore, even in those scenarios in which the risk of infection for the suckling pigs is at highest (...) there is only a very low probability of occurrence of newborn larvae before the suckling pigs have reached the 35 days of life; therefore the Scientific Committee considers the risk of transmission to humans by the consumption of suckling pig meat slaughtered at an age equal o lower than 35 days (5 weeks) as low. In the case of intensive breeding without supervision or audit of the housing conditions but with no access to the outdoors, the detailed control on breeding seems to prevent the suckling pigs to intake Trichinella spp. infected meat before the slaughter. In this case, the possibilities of piglets entering in contact with Trichinella contaminated material are negligible and the risk is insignificant when the pigs are slaughtered right after the weaning and until the first 35 days of life (5 weeks).(...