Inactivation of Trichinella spp. in naturally infected boar meat after Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) treatments

Abstract

Larvae of the nematode Trichinella are capable of causing parasitic infections in humans after the consumption of uncooked meat or meat products, leading to severe symptoms and even death. Meat inspection is costly and tends to progressively be derogated in holdings applying controlled housing conditions in certain regions. Our study focuses on the evaluation of the efficacy of Pulsed Electric Fields (PEF) in the inactivation of Trichinella spp., including excysted larvae isolated by artificial digestion and encapsulated larvae found in meat from naturally infected wild boars. Microscopic examination of unstained and propidium-iodide-stained larvae suspensions showed that most of the excysted larvae were inactivated 10 min after an intermediate PEF treatment (1 kV/cm, 0.41 kJ/kg). Treating excysted larvae with the mildest PEF treatment (0.5 kV/cm, 0.05 kJ/kg) combined with a 3% NaCl incubation resulted in synergistic inactivation. The application of 3 kV/cm (20 kJ/kg) to wild boar meat resulted in the inactivation of over 90% of encapsulated Trichinella larvae. The viability of Trichinella in meat was inversely correlated to the field strength applied (1–6 kV/cm) for equal energy input (20 kJ/kg). These findings demonstrate that PEF technology can potentially serve as a novel strategy for the inactivation of Trichinella larvae in meat.