Rare parasite from raw beef? - Page 3

Since it seems dogs rarely show symptoms of this parasite, and the parasite is VERY common in raw meat, they probably did have it.

I think you should talk to the vet. Tell her the owner you would like to speak to the vet because you would like to know how this may affect the litter mates, your own dogs, etc. (or make something else up). I (personally) would want to hear this directly from the vet. Everything I have read says that humans can get this parasite as well yet I haven't seen it clinically. I worked in a lab for about 5 years and we did 5-10 parasite exams a day and in all those years this parasite never came up. I would think someone would have come up with it if it was at all common??

Also, how long has the puppy been out of your care and where does the puppy live? If the puppy has been out of your care for weeks and lives on a farm there is a good chance this puppy didn't get the parasite from you. If the pup only left a few weeks ago and lives in a place where it wouldn't have much contact with other animals feces (dogs, especially puppies love to eat poop) then I might be a little more worried. 

The thing about this bug (if this is what the puppy has) is it probably won't resolve with just a simple deworming. Do you know what medication this puppy is on? It does look like the parasite gets imbedded in the muscle of the animal which means it will probably require a different treatment than deworming (but I am just guessing). Also, since it does infect the muscle you will probably want to get your own dogs treated. All the more reason why you really should talk to the vet that diagnosed this and I would question HOW the puppy was diagnosed. Hopefully the specimen was sent to an independent lab and that is how they know the exact parasite this is. Parasites are very difficult to speciate on wet mount (which is what most vets do in-house).

If it turns out that the vet does say this is the species (Sarcocystis) and not just "Coccidia" and they had a reliable method for diagnosis (stain, not wet mount) and the puppy doesn't live on a farm (or something similar) you might want to look into getting your own dogs tested and treated. Chances are that if this dog really does have this parasite then the source may have been your own dogs who were infected awhile ago.

Echo, as with most parasites, sarcocystis is species specific, and the type that infects cattle and dogs is not the same that infects cattle and humans.

Wiki has the details on detection and treatment:

Diagnosis

Definitive diagnosis by biopsy of an infected muscle. Sarcocysts are identifiable with hematoxylin and eosin. The PAS stain may be helpful but variable uptake of stain is common. Along with the sarcocysts inflammatory cells may be found. Other findings include myositis, myonecrosis, perivascular and interstitial inflammation, vasculitis and eosinophilic myositis.

[edit] Treatment

Because infection is rarely symptomatic, treatment is rarely required. There have been no published trials so treatment remains empirical. Agents that have been used include albendazole, metronidazole and cotrimoxazole for myositis. Corticosteroids have also been used for symptomatic relief.

Amprolium and salinomycin was effective in preventing severe illness and death in experimentally infected calves and lambs. These agents have not been tried in humans to date.

[edit] Prevention

Infection can be prevented by cooking the meat before eating. Alternatively freezing the meat at -5C for several days before ingestion will kill the sporocysts.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcocystis  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcocystis 

Let me just ask this... Because I am a fan of the show "Monsters Inside Me" (I know.. .ewwww!!) and I saw something on there about people getting parasites from Sushi when not first frozen.  IF YOU FEED RAW (and this question I guess is really for Echo)... if you FREEZE the meat before you feed it... would that not kill any parasites?

 Freezing all fresh meat for at least one week is usually safe ., for feeding raw.

YR

I'm not sure that a typical household freezer is cold enough to kill all parasites in meat. I feed whole herring as part of a raw diet and I have my supplier freeze it according to a modified version of the USDA Food Code 3-402.11 Parasite Destruction. The fish is frozen at -35C for seven days. My household freezer only goes down to -13C.

From http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/RetailFoodProtection/FoodCode/FoodCode2009/ucm186451.htm:

1. (1) Frozen and stored at a temperature of -20°C (-4°F) or below for a minimum of 168 hours (7 days) in a freezer; ^P
2. (2) Frozen at -35°C (-31°F) or below until solid and stored at -35°C (-31°F) or below for a minimum of 15 hours; ^P or
3. (3) Frozen at -35°C (-31°F) or below until solid and stored at -20°C (-4°F) or below for a minimum of 24 hours. ^P

 

Won't freezing denature some of the nutrients in meat ?  If true, then that means we will be losing some of the benefits of feeding raw, right ?

It all depends on what you prefer: lose some nutrients to freezing, or wind up with a sick dog.

Parasites in raw fish are especially nasty. I remember reading a book written by a zoo vet. The lady who looked after the fur seals at the zoo was very set in her ways, and refused to use modern methods of parasite control. She fed the seals raw fresh fish, and used a very harsh, old fashioned worm medicine to keep the parasites under control.

One day, she decided to double the dose of the wormer, because she'd seen so many worms in the seal's feces. She darn near killed the seals, and had to beg the veterinarian to save their lives.

She completely changed her attitude towards the vet after that! She also froze the fish before feeding it.

Dogs can live a perfectly healthy life without raw food. I would much rather cook the meat or freeze it, as to my way of thinking, keeping my animals parasite free takes priority over possibly losing a few micronutrients!

Sunsilver-

People can get this from beef. This isn't that common so don't everyone freak out. Sarcosystis bovihominis is the species that humans get form cows and Sarcosystis suihominis is the species that infects humans from pigs. There are also a few species listed below that you get from lamb. I am sure there are several others you can get from other animals as there are over 100 Sarcosystis species. 

Here is a human medical article about it:

From: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/228279-overview

Overview:

Sarcosporidiosis is defined as infection with Sarcocystis, which is an intracellular protozoan parasite. Sarcocystis predominantly infects nonhuman animals but can also infect humans.

Many Sarcocystis species exist, all of which are believed to have a requisite two-host life cycle. This life cycle is based on a predator-prey host relationship.^[1] In the rare occurrence in which a human is the intermediate, or accidental, host, Sarcocystis organisms can be found in human skeletal and cardiac muscle.^{[2, 3]}

Humans can also serve as the definitive host for Sarcocystis. This can occur following ingestion of the cysts in raw or undercooked beef or pork. After this invasion, the infective sporozoites replicate before being eliminated in the stool as sporocysts.^[4] Once shed, sporocysts are typically ingested by an intermediate host (usually a cow or pig) and pass into the small intestine of this animal. Once in the intermediate host, the oocysts release motile sporozoites, which initially migrate into arteries throughout the body. They then become merozoites in the blood vessels and, finally, in muscle. Several noninfectious generations develop before finally maturing to become infectious sarcocysts.^[1]

Within a day after ingestion of contaminated beef or pork, individuals who develop the enteritis form of sarcosporidiosis may experience diaphoresis, chills, fever, vomiting, and diarrhea.^[11]

Common Sarcocystis species found in raw kibbe (Middle Eastern dish of lamb and seasonings, eaten cooked or raw) include Sarcocystis hominis, Sarcocystis hirsuta, and Sarcocystis cruzi.^[12]

 

amysavesjacks-

I have read about several studies where parasites were killed by freezing them however the studies I am aware of on parasites were mostly centered around sushi (probably because this is the most commonly ingested raw meat in humans). The studies focused on temperatures (-20 degrees C) which translates into about -4 F (most American freezers and refrigerators read in F). Most people's freezers are in the ball park of -4 to -6 F so it can be done. The freezing time for this is 7 days. 

In the lab we didn't do any kind of research on freezing parasites to kill them so I don't have any hands on experience with this to know if it works. Usually in the lab we were trying keep the bugs alive and get them to grow:) 

I often get the question will freezing kill bacteria and I can say without a doubt the answer is no. We would freeze all isolates of clinically significant bacteria from every patient. Months and years later we would thaw "interesting" isolates for training purposes and they almost always survived and "behaved" like the day we froze them. So freezing meat will not kill bacteria but it will slow the growth. Bacteria survive quite nicely for years at -4 degrees C.

Here is an article related to freezing parasites:

http://seafood.ucdavis.edu/pubs/nematodes.htm