the first thing that came to mind, of coarse since she wrote it, is that dogs (et al) get heartworms from mosquitoes.
dogs get tapeworms from fleas. fleas are the intermediate host for the tapeworm(Dipylidium) commonly seen in dogs, cats, etc. they don't get tapeworms from a flea bite, but from having a flea irritate their skin, ingesting the flea, at which point the dog then gets tapeworms. for more information on the life cycle of this parasite, click on this link... beware it is kinda gross (all the drawings are sketches, but it is still gross none the less).
this being said, lets consider a parasite that can be contracted by humans. (ready to get scared?)
dont really get scared. it is very unlikely that anyone undercooks their pork. maybe now you will understand WHY!
trichinella is a parasite that you can get from eating undercooked meat. the larvae LIVE in the muscle tissue of the pig (or whatever the host) - and then you eat it, not dead, and it lives in you and YOU become the host (thus you have trichinosis)!!! EEEW! this is exactly why for YEARS AND YEARS after vet tech school i would not eat pork. if you want specifics of the life cycle of trichinella, click on this link. no gross pictures there...
maybe i'll make this a blog topic for a while, as there are lots of things that host snails, which then sit atop a grass blade to be eaten by a cow, or deer... and ever hear about pinworms? you can get them from walking barefooted outside.
oh yea. this is a great topic. i can see everyone turning veggie already. :)
this is exactly why - at my house - you have to deal with overcooked meat. I am SO scared of undercooking things that I always overcook it. We have all sort of gotten used to it :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is why it is always a good idea to invest in a decent meat thermometer. Mr. B is a stickler about this, and, he's right to be so; but, also, this way, the meat does not get over-done, either!
ReplyDeleteBTW, another "gross out" condition (kids are prone to it) is impetigo.
ReplyDeleteMy sister Ann and I contracted this when we were really young and the doctor said it was likely from swimming in a public pool that was uh, less than sanitary, if ya get my drift.
I'll never forget it. Ick. Ann had it worse than I did, but, God, was it awful.
http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/impetigo.html
Yeah, like MJHF said, now you see (part of) why I don't cook at all! Unless it is browning hamburger (which I can see is done), I am always afraid that I'm not cooking something enough... Like frying fish, I never get the pan hot enough quickly enough to not either a) have the fish soak up all sorts of grease; or b) have the fish even get cooked and be nice and flaky...
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah... Forgot to add... I always also thought that trichinosis was the grossest of any of the parasites, and I remember in lab not wanting to get too close to it, b/c the lab TA said that it was highly infectious... I was a little worried I'd catch it right there by touch! ;)
ReplyDeleteOne more comment, sorry I keep thinking of them sporadically... Have you ever heard of anyone getting trichinosis, though? I mean, with all the barbecue/pork cooked in the ENC (or, just NC as a whole), you'd have to think that it'd be more common than it sounds... Here's another interesting read, which dispelled the notion that I'd had that "once you get it, you can't get rid of it", with an interesting stat that there's less than 20 cases annually in the U.S...
ReplyDelete