Survival of Viruses in “Prosciutto di Parma” (Parma Ham)

Abstract

Co-operative studies were undertaken at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture; at the Istituto Zooprofiiattico Sperimentale, Brescia, Italy and at the Istituto Zooprofiiattico Sperimentale, Sassari, Italy to determine if the causative agents for such diseases as foot-and-mouth, African swine fever and hog cholera were inactivated by the processing and curing procedures used in preparing Parma hams. Hams were prepared from pigs infected with each of these diseases when the carcass contained the greatest amount of virus. Foot-and-mouth disease virus could not be recovered from the hams at 108 days in the U.S. experiment and 170 days in the Italian experiment. African swine fever virus was not recovered at 399 days in the U.S. experiment and 300 days in the Italian experiment. The virus of hog cholera was not recovered at 313 days in the U.S. experiment and 189 days in the Italian experiment.