‘Facial swelling’ spread after people ate bear meat at North Carolina event, CDC says

Bear meat served at a North Carolina mountain affair infected as many as 10 people with Trichinellosis, resulting in such unusual symptoms as eye and facial swelling, health officials have learned.

It is believed the meat was undercooked, leaving about half of the people who ate it infected by potentially deadly roundworms, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report issued Oct. 10. No fatalities were reported.

The event was staged in November in Swain County, and the people who fell ill lived in Swain, Cherokee and Graham counties, the North Carolina Division of Public Health reports. Swain County abuts the Tennessee state line in southwestern North Carolina.

Eight of the 10 people who fell sick went to hospitals for symptoms that included “headache, swelling of eyes and face, nausea, and/or diarrhea,” officials said.

The meat came from three different bears that had been “processed, divided, and stored together,” officials say.

In all, 34 people attended the event, but only 22 “reported consuming undercooked bear meat,” the CDC says. The 10 who got sick ranged in age from 10 to 40.

“Although Trichinella infections remain rare, thousands of bears are harvested each year in North Carolina,” the CDC reported.

“An increasing percentage of recent cases are associated with consumption of wild game meat.”

Trichinellosis is caused by consuming undercooked meat infected with roundworm larvae, which are found “in many carnivorous and omnivorous animals,” the CDC says. The larvae “invade the small bowel mucosa and develop into adult worms.”

This story was originally published October 15, 2024 at 7:24 AM with the headline "‘Facial swelling’ spread after people ate bear meat at North Carolina event, CDC says."