Family infected with brain worms after eating undercooked bear meat

A number of family members were infected with brain worms after consuming bear meat, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In July 2022, the Minnesota Department of Health was reprted that a 29-year-old man had been hospitalized multiple times over a two-and-a-half-week period with symptoms including fever, severe muscle soreness, swelling around the eyes, and other abnormalities discovered in blood tests.

He told that he had attended a family gathering where they shared a meal of bear meat kabobs. The bear had been hunted in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, the previous May and its meat was stored in a freezer for a month and a half before being thawed out for the meal. However, family members noticed it was undercooked, so the meat was recooked before being served again.

The man was diagnosed with trichinellosis, a rare roundworm infection usually acquired through consuming wild game. Once in a human host, the larvae can then move through the body to muscle tissue and organs, including the brain.

The worms would have been killed, the CDC said, had the meat been cooked to a temperature of over 165 degrees.