Family Eats Bear, Ends Up With Parasitic Worms [Video]

A family reunion’s bear feast turned into a medical disaster, thanks to some parasitic worms. In a recent paper, scientists with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention detail how the family caught trichinellosis from contaminated bear meat that wasn’t cooked thoroughly enough. Several family members became so sick that they had to be hospitalized, though thankfully everyone recovered.

The strange outbreak was described over the weekend in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Officials at the Minnesota Department of Health first became aware of the outbreak in July 2022, after a 29-year-old man had been hospitalized twice over the span of 17 days with symptoms of fever, severe muscle aches, and swelling around his eyes. During his second visit, doctors learned that he had attended a family reunion in South Dakota a week before his symptoms began—a reunion where people were served …