000846 Certified-Trichinosis-Free Pork Program Planned

Washington - The days of the chewy pork chop may soon be over.

Americans for years have been overcooking pork out of fear of trichinosis -- unaware that improved production practices virtually have eliminated the disease-causing worm from U.S. hogs.

USDA is now testing a program for certifying pigs as trichinae-free that could be a model for controlling other parasites and food-borne pathogens such as E. coli and salmonella.

Such programs could pressure farmers to improve their production methods to prevent animals from becoming contaminated, rather than just relying on processors and consumers to kill pathogens.

“It is clear that the best place to stop contamination and to control the causes of foodborne illness is before the microorganism or the parasite ever leaves the farm,” said Carol Tucker Foreman, director of the Consumer Federation of America's Food Policy Institute.

Research is under way in Texas on a feed additive that has shown promise in eliminating E. coli O157:H7, a potentially deadly bacterium, from beef cattle.

Improved sanitation practices on egg farms already is helping to reduce rates of salmonella contamination in egg-laying hens.

As for trichinae, millions of schoolchildren have been warned over the years not to eat undercooked pork, lest they get the parasite in their muscles.

Hogs pick up the worm from consuming raw garbage or infected animal carcasses, and hogs, being hogs, will eat just about anything. Laws enacted in the 1950s required that waste be cooked before it was fed to pigs.

About 2% of the nation's swine were infected with the parasite in 1900. By 1995, that had been reduced to 0.013%. The rate is expected to be even lower, if the worm shows up at all, when an updated survey is completed this year.

Human infections are rare. Fewer than 50 cases of human trichinosis are reported annually to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared with 500 cases a year in the 1940s, and many of the recent ones are attributed to consumption of wild game, not pigs.

“The fear of trichinosis is a perceived threat rather than a real one,” said H. Ray Gamble, a USDA scientist who developed a blood test that detects the parasite in live pigs.

To qualify for trichinae-free certification under the new program, farmers must be audited by a USDA-accredited veterinarian, who will be trained to check whether a herd has been exposed to garbage or infected rodents and wildlife.

Packing plants that participate in the program will have to keep certified pigs separate from other hogs, and USDA inspectors will spot-check to make sure the animals are free of the parasite.

The program, which will be tested starting this fall with packing plants in Minnesota and Iowa, could start on a full-scale basis by the end of next year.

“This program really goes beyond trichinae. What we're developing is a model for pre-harvest food safety to bring food-safety assurances even more into the realm of the production level,” said Dave Pyburn, director of veterinary science for the National Pork Producers Council.

The next certification program is likely to target toxoplasma, a parasite that cats can spread to hogs, said Gamble, the USDA scientist. Toxoplasma is the reason pregnant women are advised not to empty litter boxes.

Interest in the trichinae program heightened in 1994, when an outbreak of hamburger-related E. coli poisonings raised public alarms about bacteria.

“It has bothered me a lot that all of the emphasis on preventing foodborne illness has been concentrated on the packing house and the consumer and that we have not spent until very recently very much time or energy or creativity in trying to stop it at the farm,” Foreman said.

Pork should still be cooked to 160 degrees to guard against harmful microbes, according to the government, but it does not have to be well-done.

Pork is best when some pink is left in the center and will still have its natural juices at 160 degrees, according to the pork council.

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