Enhanced or pumped pork products represent a significant proportion (40 to 50%) of the commercially available pork cuts available to consumers at the retail level. In a previous study, pork loins containing viable Toxoplasma gondii tissue cysts were pumped with solutions containing 2% sodium chloride or 1.4% or higher potassium or sodium lactate and stored at 4ЊC for 7 days. This treatment prevented transmission of T. gondii to cats. In the present study, enhanced pork loins were stored for 0, 8, 16, 24, 32, or 40 h at 4ЊC and then fed to T. gondii-seronegative cats to determine how quickly the loss of tissue cyst viability occurred. In a second experiment, pork loins collected from pigs experimentally infected with T. gondii were stored at temperatures found in retail meat cases and then fed to T. gondii-seronegative cats to determine the effect of typical meat case storage temperatures on tissue cyst viability. In both experiments, cat feces were examined for 14 days after the infected meat meal to assess oocyst shedding. The results indicate that solutions containing 2% sodium chloride or 1.4% potassium or sodium lactate are effective within 8 h of injection for killing T. gondii tissue cysts in pork loins and that storage at meat case temperatures at or below 0ЊC (32ЊF) for 7 days also killed T. gondii tissue cysts in pork loins.The use of enhancement solutions in retail meat products has increased in recent years as a result of consumer concerns about meat quality and safety. Retail cuts of pork are frequently enhanced with salt solutions to improve flavor and texture and to extend shelf life by reducing microbial contamination (1-4). The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most common parasitic infections of humans and other warm-blooded animals (8). The parasite can cause serious illness in healthy adults and is dangerously virulent in immunocompromised individuals and congenitally infected children. The U.S. national seroprevalence of 23% in humans has remained stable for the past 10 years, as reported by the National Health and Nutrition Evaluation Survey (22). Transmission of T. gondii occurs through accidental ingestion of infectious oocysts from cat feces in contaminated food or water, by transplacental transfer from mother to fetus, and by consumption of raw or undercooked meat products containing T. gondii tissue cysts (8,12,13). The recently completed National Retail Meats Survey (NRMS) for T. gondii (11) revealed that among retail beef, chicken, and pork, pork was the only meat that contained viable T. gondii tissue cysts. Dubey et al. (13) found that virtually every edible portion of an infected pig carcass may contain viable T. gondii tissue cysts. Considering this risk from infected pork, it is important to understand how meat handling and processing might affect the viability of T. gondii cysts in meat.In a previous study, Hill et al. (19) found that injection of 2.0% NaCl or 1.4% or higher lactate-based salt solutions into pork loins containing infective tissue cys...
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