A Nasty Case of ,

[GADWALL41]

Out Early this morn .

 

A touch of Moon , extremely windy and quite cold , with High tide just after dawn .

 

4 Wigeon in the bag and I have just Cut them up . However 1 has a Nasty Case of Rice Breast , which I usually find more in Teal over here .

 

So I was wondering , how often do you come across it ? and in what Species ?.

 

I seldom Pluck my Duck , Usually breast them , so I see it quite easily that way .

 

Thanks for the info.

[sako751sg]

Never actually ever come across this before fella.Is it still edible?

[edenman]

Cooking kills the parasite - I wonder how many of these we have eaten without knowing having left the skin on ?

[GADWALL41]

Hi ,

if Properly cooked , it can be eaten without Ill effect , But the Advice is Not to .

Believe me , when you see a Bad one , you will not want to eat it !.

 

 

I had a Teal 2 Seasons back that was Far worse than that poor Wegi in the pic .

 

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Hunt_Trap/waterfowl/sarcocystis.asp

 

I just wonder of the Ratio of infection among Waterfowl ?. Probably Higher than we think as it might go undetected after being shot. - under the skin as mentioned .

All depends of the Method of Preparation for cooking .

 

So How often have you shot one with this condition ?,

[edenman]

Only once and it was a wigeon

[figgy]

I'm not that desperate to eat duck to eat an infested one. They just don't look apetising or even good enough to feed cooked to your dog.

[marsh man]

Hi ,

if Properly cooked , it can be eaten without Ill effect , But the Advice is Not to .

Believe me , when you see a Bad one , you will not want to eat it !.

 

 

I had a Teal 2 Seasons back that was Far worse than that poor Wegi in the pic .

 

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Hunt_Trap/waterfowl/sarcocystis.asp

 

I just wonder of the Ratio of infection among Waterfowl ?. Probably Higher than we think as it might go undetected after being shot. - under the skin as mentioned .

All depends of the Method of Preparation for cooking .

 

So How often have you shot one with this condition ?,

Tell you the truth , not very often , and if I did I would eat less duck than I do now. I enjoy shooting em but I let other people enjoy eating em.

 

If anyone can give us a scientifick answer it would be " anser2 " who must have handled a lot more duck than us during his time working with wildfowl.

[anser2]

I am sorry Marshman but the majority of duck I have handled have been alive so never take their jackets off. I have perpared 100s of ducks I have shot but usually I only pluck them and do not skin them . Never found any with the paracites shown in the photo. I have had the odd one with growths on their breast and always dumped them.

 

This will be of interest though :

 

http://www.ducks.org/media/_blogs/Checkett%20Out/_images/Sarcosystis.bmp
The USGS-National Wildlife Health Center
Field Manual of Wildlife Diseases: General
Field Procedures and Diseases of Birds

The condition described above is called Sarcocystis (http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/publications/field_manual/chapter_28.pdf)or "rice breast." Sarcocystis is a nonfatal, usually asymptomatic, infection that is caused by a parasitic protozoan. Various species of this parasite affect mammals, reptiles and birds. The most commonly reported species in North America is Sarcocystis rileyi, the species found most often in waterfowl. Current knowledge of the disease does not indicate a need to initiate control because there is little evidence that bird health is compromised by this parasitic infection.

Sarcocystis sp. presents no known health hazard to humans. The primary importance to humans of Sarcocystis in waterfowl is the loss of infected birds for food. The unaesthetic appearance of parasitized muscle may prompt hunters to discard the carcass. Many hunters who pluck birds never observe the parasite as cooking generally makes the parasite less noticeable than seen in raw muscle tissue.

If you would like to learn more about this and other diseases, see the USGS-National Wildlife Health Center Field Manual of Wildlife Diseases: General Field Procedures and Diseases of Birds (http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/publications/field_manual/)

 

 

This is more worrying though

"For the past 4 or 5 months I have noticed pain in my right thumb. I chalked it up to arthritis do to an extensive history even though I am relatively young (25 years old). The pain continued to get worse then slowly but surely I lost the use of my right thumb. Then it began swelling and I figured I would go see a doctor. Yeah, I put it off for way too long but I know alot of guys that hate going to see a doc and I am one of those. After being seen and referred to a specialist I was sent for an MRI. After reading the MRI the doc said it was just a tumor and a simple surgical procedure would fix me up good as new. So last Wednesday I went under the knife and after waking up from surgery the doctor was asking a bunch of really odd questions. Initially he told me it was some form of infection that he had never seen before and that my thumb was full of something that resembled grains of white rice. He told me not to be worried that they would run a bunch of tests and determine what it was for me to come back Monday for a follow-up. Well when I went in yesterday the doctor told me that it was determined that it was not an infection at all that it was something else. After more odd questions he asked me about something that I had mentioned to him which I have always heard referred to as "rice breast" in ducks. After he made some phone calls to the lab and the infectious disease center it was determined that what I had in my finger was indeed this parasite. Best he could figure I had a cut or puncture wound on my thumb when cleaning a bird with this rice breast. I killed a handful of birds last year, primarily black ducks that when I went to breast them out I found the rice looking parasite throughout the breast and threw the birds out.

What little bit I have read over the past couple years about the rice breast said that if you ate a bird with the parasite that it shouldn't hurt you if it was thoroughly cooked, but I have never eaten one to my knowledge. However I never would have thought this was possible. Apparently this is very uncommon but as my luck would have it I am one of the few this has happened to. The doctor was unable to tell me what outcome this would have on my thumb and said that there was no medicine that would help and that removal of the parasite was the "cure". I now have to go for a few more MRI's over the next year and have a sore, stiff, stitched up thumb that is keeping me out of work for the time being.

Be careful when cleaning your ducks and wash your hands afterwards. Looks like the ducks got me this time and my buddies are now referring to me as such lovely names as "uncle Ben" and "white rice".
-----------------------
http://www.refugepics.com/members/Coho/spoonie%20pic.jpg

Sarcocystis species are intracellular protozoan parasites with an intermediate-definitive host life cycle based on a prey-predator relationship. Asexual stages develop in intermediate hosts after they ingest the oocyst stage from definitive-host feces and terminate with the formation of intramuscular cysts (sarcocysts). Sarcocysts in meat eaten by a definitive host initiate sexual stages in the intestine that terminate in oocysts excreted in the feces. Most Sarcocystis species infect specific hosts or closely related host species. For example, humans and some primates are definitive hosts for Sarcocystis hominis and S. suihominis after eating raw meat from cattle and pigs, respectively. The prevalence of intestinal sarcocystosis in humans is low and is only rarely associated with illness, except in volunteers who ingest large numbers of sarcocysts.

Pathogenic protozoa are commonly transmitted to food in developing countries, but food-borne outbreaks of infection are relatively rare in developed countries. The main protozoa of concern in developed countries are Toxoplasma, Cryptosporidium and Giardia, and these can be a problem in immunocompromised people. Other protozoa such as Entamoeba histolytica, Cyclospora cayetanensis and Sarcocystis can be a food-borne problem in non-industrialised countries. C. cayetanensis has emerged as a food-borne pathogen in foods imported into North America from South America.

Seven members of a 15-man U.S. military team that had operated in rural Malaysia developed an acute illness consisting of fever, myalgias, bronchospasm, fleeting pruritic rashes, transient lymphadenopathy, and subcutaneous nodules associated with eosinophilia, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and elevated levels of muscle creatinine kinase. Sarcocysts of an unidentified Sarcocystis species were found in skeletal muscle biopsies of the index case. Albendazole ameliorated symptoms in the index case; however, his symptoms persisted for more than 5 years. Symptoms in 5 other men were mild to moderate and self-limited, and 1 team member with laboratory abnormalities was asymptomatic. Of 8 team members tested for antibody to Sarcocystis, 6 were positive; of 4 with the eosinophilic myositis syndrome who were tested, all were positive. We attribute this outbreak of eosinophilic myositis to accidental tissue parasitism by Sarcocystis.

Sarcocystis is an uncommon parasitic infection. We report four cases that presented with lumps, pain in the limbs or a discharging sinus of unknown etiology. Microscopic examination of the excised tissue in all cases showed characteristic cysts of the sarcocystis parasite. A discussion of the identification and recognition of this uncommon infection from muscle biopsies is given.

Muscle sarcocystosis is a parasitic infection acquired by ingestion of sporocysts of Sarcocystis species. A case is described where symptoms of fever, chronic myositis and eosinophilia were present. Diagnosis was made via muscle biopsy. Improvement and cure coincided with treatment with cotrimoxazole. A limited review of human muscle sarcocystosis and an outline of the gaps in the knowledge of this infection is presented.

http://www.scducks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19657&highlight=Sarcocystis

[marsh man]

What a brilliant and interesting reply , trouble is now I am going to look at each bird a lot more than I had done in the past.

 

I very rarely skin duck , Mallard I pluck right out and Widgeon size duck I cut the breasts off but leave the skin on and If I came across one with them with white grains on it breast I would bin or burn it , the last thing I would do is eat it , if I did it might be the last thing I ever do

[wildfowlingmad]

I ate a breasted duck with that early in the season, not as bad as your wigeon though, at the time i attributed the rice grains to new feathers coming through! I will look out for it more now. Just trying to remember what species it was, think it was a gadwall but I cant remember... doesn't seem to have done me any harm yet. Thanks for posting that info anser2 really interesting!

[GADWALL41]

Thanks for all the Answers guys .

 

Special thanks to anser2 for the detailed info .

 

The

Field Manual of Wildlife Disease.

I shall download it to my I pad for little late night light reading .

 

That bird was the 4th in the last 10 years I have found with This condition . The other 3 being Teal and the last Teal was much worse than the bird in my photo.

 

I wouldn't feed anything like that to my Dog , cooked well or not .

 

Hungry now , but why do I not feel like eating anything , Cuppa and Bik for now I think,