Trichinosis: They blame a butcher of Córdoba for a crime against public health

With more than 300 cases of trichinosis reported until yesterday in Cordoba in an epidemic that spread to several places, the Cbads butcher who sold the contaminated pork products that made sick consumers had to face the imputation of a crime against public health, in addition to a series of administrative fines.

For four years, the trader suspended the registration of an agricultural producer granted by Senasa. Despite this, he illegally slaughtered pigs in a field on his property, made pork sausages, and sold them to a butcher's shop or a catering company he also owned.

In order to pbad the municipal and provincial controls, local authorities indicate that she combined the recesses purchased in licensed refrigerators with those of animals fed in a landfill that he bought from informal farmers in a poor district of the region

The prosecutor in charge of the investigation of La Carlota opened an investigation of office: imputes the crime of propagation guilty of a dangerous and contagious disease. Until yesterday (latest data available), there were 309 people affected in the cities of Cbads, Córdoba, Puerto Italiano, Rio Cuarto, La Cesira, Marull, Cintra and other places in the rural area of the province, in addition to Venado Tuerto, in Santa Fe.

Over the weekend, the Ministry of Health has issued an alert for the notification of more than 300 cases of trichinosis (last Friday) in active homes in more than a dozen sites in three provinces: Buenos Aires and San Luis, as well as Cordoba, where the first three cases were reported to Cbads on the 14th of this month. "As it is a disease that has between 15 and 45 days of incubation, we estimate that the affected people have consumed the products between the second half of June and the first half of July. "We have had the peak of occurrence cases, but we estimate that it will drop in the next few days," explained Martín Gutiérrez, director general of control and oversight of the Ministry of Agriculture He confirmed that all patients reported buying the same products (sausages) in the same butcher's shop. "The laboratory tests of the first patients are all positive for trichinosis. we therefore estimate that other cases will be confirmed in the coming days, "he said.

At the Cbads butchery, 500 kg of goods were seized and the Bromatología area of ​​the municipality closed the premises. In the field, the butcher had 216 animals, on the Senasa had controlled slaughter in an authorized refrigerator. For the moment, in a batch of 20 pigs, tests to determine the presence of the parasite Trichinella spiralis gave a negative result. "19659007" Obviously, when products not authorized for marketing or slaughter are filtered with others the same channel, until it is not there an incident like this (because of the outbreak) it is difficult to check the irregularity.For these cases, there are not too many tools to act.We ask bromatology zones throughout the province to strengthen controls, "said Gutiérrez.

Lack of controls

Clandestine killing remains a common practice and outbreaks of trichinosis are repeated year after year.

"In the country, during the period 2009-2017, outbreaks of trichinosis were recorded each year, mainly in autumn and autumn.the winter, related to the time of year where the Slaughter of animals from family farms is more common, as well as the development of sausages and sausages at this time of year, as a cold room is not necessary to preserve food, "acknowledged the Department of Health of the Nation in the alert issued by the ongoing new outbreaks in three provinces.

In 2015, LA NACION reported an epidemic in at least six cities in the province of Buenos Aires In Ameghino, where the hospital had to improvise hospitalization zones to serve the affected population, the municipality's sources of bromatology confirmed that the cause of the epidemic had been the consumption of sausages prepared by a city butcher who bought pork with illegal certificates that the courts were free to
Trichinella spiralis to be able to sell the chacinados. The documents were signed by a registered veterinarian in La Pampa, without jurisdiction in Buenos Aires. The inspectors had therefore neglected this detail, which was an obvious irregularity.

Feeding pigs with residues, lack of good practices in animal production, farming for self-consumption without proper advice or authorization. , tasks without veterinary control and the presence of rodents in the absence of a comprehensive pest control plan are the main problems that promote outbreaks of trichinosis in animals and outbreaks of the disease. disease in the population

. How to prevent

• Eat freshly cooked pork and fresh products until the pink color disappears (internal temperature: 71ºC)
• Salar or smoke meat is not enough to kill the parasite
• Buy products derivatives, sausages and sausages (ham, bacon, sausages, sausages, etc.) only in authorized shops
• Check on the label if they have been made by authorized companies, namely, specify the brand, the batch, the date of preparation and expiration, the processor establishment and the registration data with the health authority. The sale of such food on public roads is prohibited
• Do not consume products of the hunt without the meat is subject to a post mortem veterinary inspection, including the laboratory badysis of certain samples of tissue muscular tissue that can harbor the parasite
• Avoid the consumption of meat or derivatives of unauthorized establishments, since their marketing is prohibited