Test Bear Meat for Trichinosis at Ministry of Agriculture

[charr]

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/animals/.../1330023110684

from the 2nd link..."It is important to note that most species of Trichinella found in wildlife are resistant to freezing, and, therefore are not eliminated using the freezing guidelines developed for pork; instead this meat needs to be well cooked."

Yes... It must be cook.

[caddisguy]

No point testing IMHO. Trich is only out of many nasties you can pick up from bears. Pretty much every bear has tape worms. You can usually find segments in the poop. Sometimes you can even glass worms hanging out of the bears arsehole. A tapeworm is more likely to mess you up than trich, so why to we focus on trich testing? Trich or no trich, you have to cook it properly or it can mess you up.

As far as trich infections being serious, yes they "can" be. The vast majority of trich infections never cause any symptoms. Those who do have symtoms, it depends on how many cysts they consumed. You would have to eat a fair bit of rare bear to get a bad infection. Only 1% of infections are fatal. Mostly symptoms involve stomach discomfort for a week or two while the worms replicate in the stomach. Muscle discomfort starts to happen as the worms migrate and encyst in the muscles. Rarely does trich need to be treated in any way and symptoms resolve in a few months. Yes they cysts will reside in muscle tissue for over a decade before dying off and getting absorbed, but they would not cause symptoms unless someone eats you medium rare.

That said if anyone gets their bear tested and it has trich, please feel free to bring it on over to my freezer!!

Also worth noting, eating stuff from the grocery store undercooked can mess you up just as well. People have tried to make sushi out of salmon that was not flash frozen have found out the hard way. Fwiw I'd rather have trich than e coli poisoning.

[walker1985]

I tried the link for testing trich but it's not working. Does anybody know if there are any places around Langley that I can do some testing at?

[Fella]

Honestly, just assume it has trich and cook it to 165 and you should be good.

[Ron.C]

Honestly, just assume it has trich and cook it to 165 and you should be good.

This^^^^^^^

[Breiber]

I think the whole trichinosis gets a little blown out of proportion with respect to bear meat. I think this has all been covered several times but cooking to 165F internal temp will instantly kill trich. However, it will actually start dying off long before you get to that temp. The freezing process will kill some but not all, the increased acidity of cured meats will kill some but not all, trich will start dying at 137F and during the extended time that it takes to raise your cured meats from 137 to 165 all the trich will likely be dead before you reach 165. Again though, hit 165 and your good to go. Myself, anything that doesn't get cured ends up as ground meat or sausages and in both cases cooking to 165 is easy. Hams get cured with preservatives and smoked so also hitting 165 the final insurance but likely unnecessary. I have zero concern about the bear meat that we consume as a family. The only situation that I would be nervous about is cutting fresh back straps off in the field and cooking them up on a small camp stove.....This is what Rinella did. That being said I would still do it but I'd be cautious and extra careful.