[Occurrence of Trichinella spp. in wild boar in Switzerland]

Trichinellosis is a worldwide occurring zoonosis caused by the intracellular nematode Trichinella spp. One of the main infection sources in Europe is raw or undercooked meat from wild boar. Trichinella britovi is prevalent in wild carnivores in Switzerland, thus a possible inclusion of wild boar in this wildlife cycle cannot be excluded. In order to assess the prevalence of Trichinella infection in wild boar, we tested 1,458 animals with both parasitological and serological methods. In none of the animals Trichinella-larvae could be recovered by the artificial digestion method (prevalence of larvae: 0 %; 95 % CI 0.0 - 0.3). Antibodies in meat juice were detected in 57 animals using a standardized E/S-Ag-ELISA. However, in the confirmatory westernblot, only 3 animals remained seropositive (seroprevalence: 0.2 %; 95 % CI 0.07 %-0.60 %). The occurrence of wild boar positive for anti-Trichinella-antibodies indicates that meat inspection for Trichinella-larvae in this species is important to prevent human infections.