Clinical and etiological study of a small familiar outbreak of trichinellosis in Tibet, China

The diagnosis of trichinellosis is rather difficult because fever, myalgia and eosinophilia are nonspecific, and diagnosis may be delayed. We describe a small familiar outbreak of trichinellosis occurred in early 2009 in Tibet, southwestern China, due to consumption of raw pork. The patients with trichinellosis were diagnosed by muscle biopsy and serological tests (ELISA and IFA) early at 12 days after onset of disease. Both of the pre-encapsulated and encapsulated Trichinella larvae collected from biopsy muscles and residual pork were identified as Trichinella spiralis by multiplex PCR. This is the first species identification of Trichinella isolates from the biopsy muscles of patients with trichinellosis in China