Seroprevalence of Ascaris suum compared to milk spot prevalence at slaughter in Italian fattening pigs.

Ascaris suum is one of the most important parasites of pigs. Apart from liver condemnation due to lesions caused by migrating larvae ("milk spots"), A. suum infections can compromise weight gain, feed conversion efficacy, as well as meat quality. The true prevalence of infection depends on the diagnostic test used and is often underestimated. We compared liver inspection at slaughter with serology, based on the recognition of a purified A. suum haemoglobin or complete homogenate of the 3rd stage larvae isolated from lungs, in nine pig farms in northern Italy. Liver lesions were found on all farms with prevalence ranging from 3.8% to 98.3%. All farms were also positive for circulating antibodies against As-Hb and As-Lung-L3, with prevalence among pigs on each farm ranging from 36.4-100% and 54.5-100%, respectively. Seroprevalence was consistently higher when compared to the prevalence of milk spots at slaughter. The higher sensitivity of the ELISA tests combined with their ease of use makes them an interesting tool to evaluate A. suum infection levels.

Lead Levels in Wild Boar Meat Sauce (Ragù) Sold on the Italian Market.

Game meat is endowed with excellent nutritional value, but it may also be a possible source of harmful substances, such as mycotoxins and heavy metals. In particular, several studies showed that lead fragments from hunting ammunition are able to represent a residual contaminant in the meat of wild boars or deer, representing a possible source of lead absorption. Even though wild boar meat consumption in Italy is rather limited, this meat could also be present in very popular Italian recipes, such as the typical meat sauce called ragù. We evaluated the lead levels in 48 samples (three different batches for each of the 16 brands) of ready-to-eat wild boar meat ragù sold on the Italian market in food stores and online distribution with the inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) technique. A high variability was found in the lead levels detected in the samples, with a median lead level of 0.10 mg/kg (0.01-18.3 mg/kg) and some of the samples showing very high lead concentrations. Since no intake level of lead is considered completely safe, and maximum levels for game meat have so far not been established, a greater attention on the risks to consumers' health related to the presence of this heavy metal in game meat is recommended.

Lead and copper in hunted wild boars and radiographic evaluation of bullet fragmentation between ammunitions.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the content of lead in carcasses of wild boars shot with lead bullets, in comparison with that of copper caused by lead-free ammunitions. Radiographic images of hunted boars were obtained in order to assess the degree of bullet fragmentation in the carcasses. Samples of meat were collected from different body areas at increasing distance from bullet trajectory, to be analysed by ICP-MS for lead and copper levels. In wild boars shot with lead ammunitions, a massive dispersion of bullet fragments and very high lead levels were detected. By contrast, in wild boars killed with copper ammunitions no radiographic signs of bullet fragmentation were observed. Copper ammunitions seem therefore a safer alternative to standard lead-core ones, due to their minimal fragmentation and the relatively low toxicity of this metal.