Six family members were sickened with a rare parasitic disease caused by roundworm larvae after they ate kebabs made of bear meat. A report published this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed new details of the outbreak, which occurred in July 2022 at a nine-person family reunion in South Dakota. One family member brought meat to the reunion from a black bear hunted in northern Canada.
The meat had been frozen in a household freezer for 45 days. Hunting black bears is legal in Canada and many U.S.
states. The family made kebabs with the thawed meat, alongside grilled vegetables. According to the CDC, the family had a hard time determining whether the kebabs were fully cooked, because the meat was dark in color.
So it was unintentionally served and eaten rare. A week later, one family member — a 29-year-old man in Minnesota — developed a fever, severe muscle pain and swelling around the eyes. He was hospitalized twice for his symptoms.
The man tested positive for antibodies to trichinella , a species of roundworm. Five other family members also developed symptoms such as fevers, headache, stomach pain, diarrhea, muscle pain and swelling around the eyes. Two others who'd been exposed did not develop symptoms, and the CDC could not confirm whether the ninth person had been exposed to trichinella.
The CDC tested the remaining frozen meat and detected larvae from the same roundworm species. The agency presumed that all six family members had trichine.
