Outbreak of Trichinellosis Caused byTrichinella papuae, Thailand, 2006

In 2006, the Thailand Ministry of Public Health studied 28 patients from a village in northern Thailand.All had myalgia, edema, fever, and gastrointestinal symptoms; most had eaten wild boar.A muscle biopsy specimen from a patient showed nonencapsulated larvae with a cytochrome oxidase I gene sequence of Trichinella papuae.T richinellosis is a foodborne parasitic zoonosis distrib- uted worldwide that has not always been recognized for its importance, particularly in resource-poor countries (1).In northern Thailand, the main source of infection is domestic pigs kept by villagers (2).In addition to raising pigs, villagers hunt wild boar and barking deer to supplement their diet.The causative agent of most trichinellosis outbreaks in Thailand has been Trichinella spiralis (3).However, in 1994, an outbreak of T. pseudospiralis occurred (4).T. papuae was described in 1999 (5) and has only been detected in Papua New Guinea (6).No human outbreaks of trichinellosis caused by T. papuae have been reported.On July 18, 2006, a cluster of 3 patients hospitalized with myalgia, edema, and eosinophilia was reported from Ban-rai district of Uthai Thani Province in Thailand.Local public health teams found an additional 16 villagers with similar symptoms and launched a full investigation on July 19.