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Also a good reason for not eating humans.
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More specifically, these kinds of parasites have a multi-stage life cycle. Typically a prey animal is an intermediate host which transmits a primitive stage, and a predator is the definitive host, where the parasites breed. In the case of pork tapeworm, humans are actually the definitive host, and pigs the intermediate host. Parasites are often selective about where they’ll breed, and I imagine they evolved this way because of the close association of pigs and humans, and pigs willingness to eat stuff contaminated by cysts from human faeces.
There are a number of similar parasites of other predators where humans are an incidental host (i.e. we can become infected and experience symptoms, but the parasite can’t effectively breed or transmit in us). There’s also a number that infect other predators and we can become incidental hosts by eating undercooked meat (e.g. from bears).
In general, it’s always important to cook meat, but particularly important when eating a predator or omnivore, particularly biologically similar to us or who live in close proximity to us.
Bunch of nasty parasites can also be transmitted from fish and snails, usually with us as incidental hosts.
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Well, that’s a relief!
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There was an epidemic of trichinella in Germany in 1863/64. As a consequence, a law was imposed in Prussia that required to check each slaughterede pig, boar and certain other animals for trichinella.
To this day we have EU-wise regulation that requires testing each and every slaughtered pig, boar, horse, nutria, badger, fox and bear for trichinella. The test is a typically visual inspection of tissue under a microscope.
Trichinella in pigs is extremely rare in Germany these days (between 2000 and 2009 only 4 infected pigs were identified in almost 500.000.000 slaughtered animals), so if you must you could even eat raw pig that you killed at home without any significant risk.
The testing continues because it is more common by a factor of 1000 in boars, and one in 5 foxes is infected, too. So probably don’t eat raw fox.
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It’s easy to see how an experience like this, and the natural revulsion against infestation, would translate into a local taboo against pork, which would then be reflected in the local mythology as well.
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How many festivals does her area of China/Tibet have? Seems from the article that the tradition is only linked to when the pigs are slaughtered.
Also
Scans should be death metal album sleeve.
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As easy as it is to laugh at the proscriptions in the Old Testament against eating certain things (like delicious, delicious shrimp), there is good reason not to eat a lot of the things listed, given the lack of microscopes back then.
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My grandfather’s pigs were on the edge of being feral, since he let them run free a good bit. He would corral them for certain things like castration (I’ve witnessed that too … shudder) and deworming.
Oh, and cattle can get roundworm.
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Sorry, but at this stage, that’s not exactly true. It’s hard to get levels up to where they need to be when the larvae are deep in muscle tissue. Also, the resulting inflammatory response is no joke.
Clinical Care of Trichinellosis | Trichinellosis (Trichinosis) | CDC
Trichinosis - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf (nih.gov)
In short, this is a big honking mess.
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More specifically, these kinds of parasites have a multi-stage life cycle…
See, this is why I love reading BoingBoing comments. People on here know fascinating stuff. Thanks!
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I see no one linked to that recent ChubbyEmu?
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The Big Island of Hawaii has a problem with rat lungworm, where snails and slugs eat egg-infected rat feces and then can get picked up in vegetable harvests. We’re an incidental host and the parasite takes up residence in our brain stems, dies for lack of lung material to eat, and then the resulting inflammation often kills us if left untreated.
Always wash your leafy greens from the farmers markets if you visit the Big Island!
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Watched it an hour ago, you beat me to it 
It does answer some of the thread questions - the body absorbing (most of) the parasite tissues, and the problems that the calcified areas can still cause later in life.
But those CT and MRI images - wow. No thank you very much.
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I remember a segment on the 1980s incarnation of “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” hosted by Jack and Holly Palance. It was about some explorer back in the Victorian era who wanted to be able to travel the globe and eat anything and everything without getting sick. He swallowed a tapeworm, and managed to do exactly as he intended. When he got home, he took an emetic to get rid of the tapeworm. In Jack’s telling of the tale, the explorer managed to do this without adverse effects. After watching your attached video, I can only assume that old Victorian guy was extremely lucky.
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Eh, tapeworms and roundworms are quite different, and tapeworms are a bit less murdery, but typically a lot bigger. Stupid idea either way, but yeah, at one time tapeworm scolexes (“heads”) could be purchased to help with weight loss. Never heard of roundworms being used in this way!
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The video Jorpho posted upthread tells of a woman who bought tapeworm eggs for weight loss. Intermediate forms took up residence in various parts of her body, including her head, causing blackouts and other awful side effects. But yeah, pretty stupid.
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Unless I misinterpreted things entirely, the things that took up residence in various other parts were worms of an entirely different species and not an intermediate form of the tapeworm.
So, presumably whoever was packaging the eggs was too indiscriminate and the worst outcome could have been avoided had there been better quality control.
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