Current trends in monitoring Trichinella in slaughtered pigs

Trichinellosis is a zoonotic disease caused by parasitic nematodes of the genus Trichinella. In recent decades, trichinellosis has been classified as an emerging or re-emerging infectious disease. According to the European Commission Regulation 2075/2005, which stipulates special provisions for official inspections of Trichinella in meat, samples are taken from carcasses of domestic pigs at slaughterhouses on a systematic basis and examined for the presence of Trichinella using the digestion method. More than 200 million pig carcasses are inspected every year in Europe in this way, which represents considerable economic costs. The occurrence of Trichinella in pig carcasses has been rare for many years in Europe, and the risk of trichinellosis is considered extremely small for consumers of pork meat. A monitoring programme focusing on high-risk groups of pigs and employing highly sensitive diagnostic tests could be applied in place of the routine use of the digestion method in the examination of the meat of all pig carcasses. This paper maps out current activities relating to trichinellosis on the European and international level, and may contribute to the creation of an effective monitoring programme and a new approach to monitoring Trichinella in pigs in the Czech Republic.