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BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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Can one die from eating dog meat?
DURING my watch as Director of Animal Kingdom Foundation (AKF), we were barnstorming the entire country giving seminars to policemen and local government veterinarians on animal welfare and one of the topics covered was the health hazards of eating dog meat.
During the question and answer portion after the talks, the most frequently asked questions were: Can you get sick just by eating dog meat? And can you die if you eat dog meat?
So to set the record straight and to answer these questions together with AKF veterinarians, we did a thorough research to come up with credible and scientifically proven answers to these frequently asked questions. These are the results of that research which also became the basis of the one of the regular topics in the seminars “Health Hazards from Eating Dog Meat.”
It is a fact that selling dog meat is illegal, and the meat does not go through the required National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) inspection, making eating dog meat even more dangerous.
It is a is also a fact that selling dog meat for human consumption is a violation of Section 7 Rule 7 of Republic Act 9482 or the Anti-Rabies Law.
And here are the major diseases that affect dogs:
* Bacterial
* Viral
* Parasitic
It is also a fact that most of these major diseases are Zoonotic, meaning that they can be transmitted to humans.
And most often the clinical symptoms observed in dogs are similar to the symptoms observed in humans.
BACTERIAL DISEASES
Escherichia coli
* This is one of the most dangerous transmissible bacteria.
* Transmission to humans is by eating uncooked or partially cooked meat contaminated with feces.
* The symptoms include: severe diarrhea, urinary tract infection, septicemia (a disease caused by toxic microorganisms in the bloodstream)
Salmonella spp.
* There are over 2,000 strains of Salmonella. All species and strains are pathogenic to humans.
* Salmonella spp. is found in the intestinal tract of infected animals and people.
* Human transmission is by eating fecal contaminated food.
* The symptoms include: severe gastroenteritis, cramping abdominal pain followed by diarrhea, fever, prostration and septicemia, sometimes vomiting
Shigella spp.
* Transmission to humans is typically through preparing meat which is contaminated with feces or by eating meat that is not properly cooked.
* In humans the onset is sudden with episodes of abdominal pain, urgency to defecate, and passages of formed feces that temporarily relieve the pain.
* Diarrhea becomes marked with soft or liquid stools containing mucus, pus, and often blood.
Leptospira spp.
* It is a worldwide Zoonotic bacterium affecting many wild and domesticated animals.
* Of the animals where it is most likely to occur, dogs and rodents are the highest proportion.
* Infection with humans occurs by the contact with the urine of infected animals.
* In the case of dogs, handling the carcass of slaughtered dogs, as well as preparing the meat for cooking, represents a significant health risk.
* Leptospira enters through the mucosa, and broken skin, resulting to bacteremia.
* The symptoms include: fever, depression, lethargy, anorexia, myalgia, occulo-nasal discharge
* This may progress within few days to a uremic crisis characterized by vomiting, dehydration, lumbar pain from renomegaly and nephritis and tongue-tip ulceration and necrosis.
VIRAL DISEASES
Rabies virus
* This is probably the most deadly virus affecting both humans and dogs and all warm blooded animal.
* Transmission in humans is through bites and scratches, but contamination can also occur through breaks in the skin and mucus membrane from infected saliva and even eating partially cooked animal meat.
* There are reports that even contamination of kitchen utensils used during the preparation could be a source of infection.
* Signs and symptoms: irritability, excessive movements or agitation, confusion, hallucinations, aggressiveness, bizarre or abnormal thoughts (the first symptoms can appear from a few days to more than a year after the bite occurs), muscle spasms, abnormal postures, seizures (convulsions), weakness or partial paralysis, extreme sensitivity to bright lights, sounds, or touch, increased production of saliva or tears, difficulty in speaking
* In the advanced stage of the infection, as it spreads to other parts of the nervous system, these symptoms may develop: double vision, problems moving facial muscles, abnormal movements of the diaphragm and muscles that control breathing, difficulty swallowing and increased production of saliva, hydrophobia, and it is almost always fatal
Distemper Virus
* Distemper is closely linked with the measles virus in humans.
* The two diseases are so similar, in fact, that it is speculated by medical historians and pathologists that the measles virus may have mutated at some point and spread to dogs.
* Because of this close link between the two, human beings can be infected with the canine distemper virus.
* However, an important thing to note is that, while the virus can successfully replicate in the human system, it produces no illness and no symptoms.
* Human transmission could be by direct contact on mouth and nasal discharge of dog or even contamination of meat with feces during slaughtering
ENDOPARASITIC DISEASES
* There are several endoparasites of dogs that can be transmitted to humans as well as cause illness and are considered as public health hazards.
* Among this are; Giargia spp., trichinella spp., tapeworms, and roundworms.
* The transmission is basically through contamination of dog meat with feces during slaughter and the meat itself could contain this parasite like in the case of Trichinella spp.
* Eating partially cooked or raw contaminated meat is a significant health hazard.
So, to answer the frequently asked question…Can one die from eating dog meat? Yes, you can and if you don’t die from eating dog meat you most certainly get sick from it./PN
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