Polar bear meat in Nunavut community tests positive for trichinella

This strange-looking beast is what the trichinella parasite looks like under the microscope. Clyde River residents who were recently given polar bear meat and put it in their freezers are advised to cook the meat after polar bear meat from that community tested positive for trichinella. (FILE PHOTO)

Polar bear meat distributed in early October to residents of Clyde River may contain trichinella, prompting Nunavut’s Department of Health to issue a warning Dec. 1.

The Government of Nunavut is advising anyone in the town of about 900 people who may have some of this meat in their freezer to thoroughly cook it before consumption to avoid getting sick.

Freezing or fermenting the contaminated meat will not kill the trichinella, the health department said.

In the Arctic, trichinella — known as trichinosis or trichinellosis in an infected person — is caused by a microscopic parasite called trichinella nativa, sometimes found in the meat of wild mammals such as polar bears, wolves, foxes and, most commonly, walruses.

The disease can develop after eating uncooked meat from an infected animal.

Once infected meat is consumed, trichinella worm eggs pass into the intestine where they grow and reproduce. The young worms then spread throughout the body in the blood stream.

The first symptoms of trichinellosis include diarrhea, vomiting, fatigue, fever, and abdominal discomfort for one to two days after eating the infected meat.

Headaches, fevers, chills, cough, eye swelling, aching joints and muscle pains, itchy skin, diarrhea, or constipation follow the first symptoms, for about two to eight weeks.

Death can occur in some cases.

Clyde River is the third community in Nunavut to be affected by the parasite this year, the others being Sanikiluaq and Rankin Inlet.

In both of those cases it was walrus meat that was contaminated.