The parasite Trichinella and its control of host muscle

The parasite Trichinella and its control of host muscle Trichinella is a very important intracellular parasite. James Pagent first discovered Trichinella in humans in 1875 during a medical study. There are five species of Trichinella. Medically the most important is Trichinella spiralis. It is found worldwide and has the ability to infect a wide range of mammalian hosts. Unlike many other species of intracellular parasites, such as Leishmania and Plasmodium, Trichinella does not kill the host …

…the severity of the infection is proportional to the number of infectious stages. Although Trichinella parasites can infect a wide variety of organisms it is only passed to humans through the eating of raw or uncooked flesh. Due to the implementation of stricter animal and food hygiene measures, Trichinella spiralis infections are less common. However, there remains a threat from infected rats, which may subsequently be consumed by farmyard animals such as pigs and horses.