Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. - 11/10/2009

Question
QUESTION: Dana,

Yesterday my folks bought two barbeque chickens from the local supermarket we ate one, and put the other in the fridge. The first seemed ok but my stomach was complaining since. When the second one was broken apart tonight for supper it had brown worm like parasites about two or three times as long as a grain of rice and about the same diameter with small whisker like on one end and a funny looking fin like look on the other end. There were at least six of them in the breast. Can you identify what it is, and what should we do? The breast was taken to the neighbour who owns the store and is a butcher, but he has never seen anything like this before. Could we be in trouble health wise with this ie. eggs ingested etc.

cheers

Ron

ANSWER: Dear Ron,

Okay, I can imagine you might not be eating chicken breast any time soon.  :(

The good news is that if the meat you ate was well cooked, there is very little likelihood that any parasites could infect you.  The other good news is that if the chicken was the definitive host for this parasite (possibly a nematode, but I would need more than your description to be sure), then even eating the adult worm would probably not harm you.

As far as the identification of the parasite is concerned, I can't really be sure without actually seeing it.  There are not very many wormlike parasites that inhabit connective tissue, and the only one I found that might resemble the ones you saw would be "gapeworms" (Syngamus tracheae).  These are dark reddish brown, and the "fin" yuou saw was very likely the male worm, since this particular species (like many nematodes) lives in a constant state of "en flagrante delicto" sex. (what a life!)

You can see a picture here, to compare with the worms you saw:

http://www.tieraerztin-dr-badekow.de/assets/images/syngamus_trachea.jpg

The red arrow points to the female, and the black arrow to the male.

The thing is...these worms inhabit the birds' trachea, not the muscle.  So I wonder if your finding them in the breast might have been an artifact of the butchering, opening the trachea so that the worms had to move away while they were still alive, burrowing to wherever they could reach, in the absence of their tracheal home.

Not sure, but this is my best educated guess.  :)  If you can send a picture and attach it here, I'll be better able to help.

Hope that helps.

Dana


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: This bears a close resemblance to what I seen. I did see the worms deep in the breast meat of the chicken. There was a hair like protrusion on the one end of the worm about 1/8 of an inch long. The other end had the "fin" like appearance. The overall length was 1/2" to 3/4". My uneducated guess is this is the same worm you have in the picture. I am just a little confused as to why it would be found deep in the breast meat. The sample is being sent to the health department by the store owner. He indicated the chickens used for the store barbecue are all the same size and vacuum packaged for easy pricing. (Would vacuum packaging force the worm into the breast meat?) This means it should be traceable to the source. I don't have a picture or I would send it to you. I will let you know the results of their inspection. Thank you for the speedy reply. I appreciate the details you gave with the basic information I was able to supply.  

Answer
Dear Ron,

There are other nematode species in which the male and female exist in a constant state of coitus, so the hairlike projection and finlike appendage were very likely the male worm, if what you saw was a nematode.

I'm not sure why a gapeworm would be deep in the breast meat, either.  I would be interested to learn the identity of the worm, if you have a chance to share it.

Dana