Trichinella spp. infection in horses of Romania: Serological andparasitological survey

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Inglés. Herbivorous animals are usually, by virtue of their diet, outside the major transmissioncycles of Trichinella spp. However, since 1975, the year of the first report of humantrichinellosis caused by the consumption of infected horse meat, the domestic horse hasappeared as a novel vector of Trichinella spp. infection to humans, with 15 outbreaksdocumented in France and Italy. Romania, one of the main countries exporting horses intothe European Union (EU), experienced a dramatic increase of Trichinella spp. infection inboth domestic pigs and humans in the 1990s. Some Trichinella spiralis-infected horseswere exported to the EU during this period. The aim of this study was to evaluate theprevalence of Trichinella spp. infections in horses from Romania using both direct andindirect tests. Of 3000 serum samples tested in 2001, none were positive by ELISA usingthree different Trichinella antigens (crude; excretory/secretory, ES; stg-BSA antigens). Of2992 serum samples tested in 2002, 17 (0.56%) showed optical density values higher thanthe cut-off in an ELISA using ES antigens and one was confirmed by western blot (WB).Four of the 17 ELISA positive horses, including the horse with a confirmed serology by WB,were subjected for intensive meat examination at slaughter, but no Trichinella spp. larvaewere detected. Further, no Trichinella spp. larvae were detected by trichinelloscopy andartificial digestion of 25,838 horses slaughtered in Alexandria and Timisoara between2001 and 2004. The false positive results obtained by serology confirm the previous workon the unreliability of serology for detection of Trichinella spp. infection in horses.Furthermore, the lack of detection of Trichinella spp. infected horses by artificial digestion,suggests a very low prevalence of infection in horses in Romania.