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Asked by yolo98 to Bob, Katie, Nisha, Sallie, Vee on 27 Jun 2012.
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Sallie Baxendale answered on 27 Jun 2012:
Yes- this is sort of true. There is a very nasty condition called cysticercosis – this is where pork tape worm lavae get into the human blood stream. They can then lodge in the brain, eyes and also muscle tissue, and cause all kinds of havoc, including seizures and small strokes.
The life cycle of the tape worm involves humans and pigs. Pigs eat contaminated food that contains the eggs of the tape worm from human feces. The eggs develop into cysticerci in pig muscles. Humans become infected when they ingest raw or undercooked pork that contain cysticerci that are alive. When these custicerci reach the small intestine, the head of the worm attaches itself to the intestinal wall and begins to grows lots of segments. The tape worm grows three to six segments a day, and each one has around 50,000 eggs. Nearly 250,000 eggs are passed daily into the human feces and to the environment, and the cycle continues. If these eggs are digested in the stomach they release the next phase of the life cycle which penetrate the intestinal wall and reach the bloodstream. These lavae develop into cysticerci in any organ.
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Vee Mitchell answered on 2 Jul 2012:
Nasty – I knew there was a reason for not eating any meat undercooked!
You can see how the tape worm lavae might be mistaken for maggots – a true maggot is from flies when they lay eggs. Meat would have to be in a fairly rotted state to get to this stage and I think you’d notice. Maggots are nearly 1cm in length so quite noticeable whereas cysticerci eggs are only 30-40microns (a micron is one thousandth of a mm) so you’d have difficulty seeing them with the naked eye.
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