1 in 25 Dehcho black bears has Trichinella parasite

A potentially serious parasite has been showing up in the Dehcho region in black bears, grizzly bears and wolves.

The Trichinella parasite burrows into muscle tissue and can be passed on to humans, causing an illness caused trichinosis.

The parasite is more commonly known as "pork worm" because it's the same organism sometimes found in raw pork.

An ongoing monitoring program in the Dehcho has found it in grizzly bears, wolves, and black bears in numbers that have held mostly steady since it has been studied for the last 14 years.

Data show that about one in 25 black bears is infected with the parasite.

"The trend is pretty flat," says Nic Larter, a biologist with the N.W.T. Department of Environment and Natural Resourcesbased in Fort Simpson.

"What we found in our study was about fourper cent of the black bears that we had samples from had this parasite."

Grizzly bears and wolves had much higher rates of infection, likely due to their fully carnivorous diets as well as behaviours like scavenging and cannibalism, but "humans tend not to consume wolves or grizzly bears," he said.

The parasite can be passed from animal to animal including humans by consuming meat infected with its cysts. Symptoms of infection include diarrhea and abdominal pain, followed by muscle pains, inflammation of the whites of the eyes, and serious infections can lead to inflammation of the heart and lungs.

Larter says the best way to stay safe is to treat bear meat like pork.

"Definitely cook your meat thoroughly," he says.

"Freezing will not guarantee that you have killed the parasite. It can be frozen for a long time, brought out, and that parasite is still potentially active and not good for humans."