Trichinellosis: WOAH Reference Laboratory at the Saskatoon Laboratory

The Centre for Food-borne and Animal Parasitology at the Saskatoon Laboratory was designated as a World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Reference Laboratory for trichinellosis in 2002.

Mandate

To improve domestic and global food safety and international market access related to Trichinella. This includes:

• Developing and harmonizing reliable detection methods
• Monitoring, surveillance and disease or outbreak investigation
• Information exchange, collaboration and networking
• Capacity building

Latest updates

• The latest WOAH Annual Reports are available online (once on the page, scroll to "Trichinellosis")

Activities and services

• Diagnostic services (including monitoring and surveillance) for Trichinella
• Providing reference materials, training and scientific advice related to Trichinella detection and control nationally and internationally
• Developing and validating methods for improved direct and indirect detection of Trichinella in food animals and their products
• Qualification of external laboratories to test for Trichinella in meat for export and ready-to-eat (RTE) pork products
• Next-generation sequencing (NGS) and molecular characterization of Trichinella
• Providing national and international proficiency samples for Trichinella digestion assay
• Quality assurance in diagnostic testing for Trichinella

Current research interests

• Studying the ecology and biology of a new species of Trichinella (T. chanchalensis) in the North American Arctic
• Use of NGS and bioinformatics to identify and characterize food-borne parasites
  • deep amplicon sequencing of the ITS-1 region for high-resolution detection of all Trichinella spp. comprising mixed infections in muscle tissue samples
• Transmission patterns of zoonotic and emerging pathogens (including Trichinella) in Canada's North, a Genomic Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change (GenARCC) project and part of the Genomics Research and Development Initiative

More information

• Trichinellosis [woah.org]
• CFIA reference laboratories and collaborating centres
• Reference Laboratories [woah.org]
• Twinning is winning: collaborating for the global management of animal diseases

Selected publications

• Identification of Trichinella taxa by ITS-1 amplicon next-generation sequencing with an improved resolution for detecting underrepresented genotypes in mixed natural infections
• Performance of indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using Trichinella spiralis-derived serpin as antigen for the detection of exposure to Trichinella spp. in swine
• Long-term increases in pathogen seroprevalence in polar bears (Ursus maritimus) influenced by climate change
• Trichinella nativa and Trichinella T6 in arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) from northern Canada
• International Commission on Trichinellosis: recommendations on pre-harvest control of Trichinella in food animals
• International Commission on Trichinellosis: recommendations for quality assurance in digestion testing programs for Trichinella
• Trichinella pseudospiralis in a wolverine (Gulo gulo) from the Canadian North
• Detection of natural Trichinella murrelli and Trichinella spiralis infections in horses by routine post-slaughter food safety testing
• Validation of a new commercial serine protease artificial digestion assay for the detection of Trichinella larvae in pork