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by skissane 1369 days ago
> > Parasites were detected in 244 (81.33%) out of 300 (100%) examined insect farms

Humans can get parasites from eating the meat of mammals, such as pork or beef. Is there any reason to believe that parasites in insects pose a greater human health risk than those in mammals?

If anything, I'd suspect mammalian parasites are a bigger risk, since they are more likely to thrive in a human host – we are mammals after all.

2 comments

> If anything, I'd suspect mammalian parasites are a bigger risk, since they are more likely to thrive in a human host – we are mammals after all.

I could hold the opposite side, saying that our immune system is also better suited to fight against them rather than totally different parasites.

Depending on country the meat supply is actually extremely clean of everything harmful. Destroying all animals is quite common solution when something harmful is found is very common tactic. And with some parasites the wild animals posses much higher risk than farmed.
Could the same argument be applied to edible insects too? I recall having deep fried silkworm pupae when I was working in China and they weren't as bad as I first anticipated, plus they were raised in a sterile and tightly controlled environment, so I was told.
Meat is on the inside of the animal, so proper preparation is important in making sure external contaminants aren't introduced.

Insects, on the other hand, are consumed whole. There's no getting around the fact that you are eating the part of the thing that walked and wallowed in it's own shit.

Pupae are an interesting exception, perhaps, though for the most part when talking edible insects I suspect people think crickets and the like.

> the wild animals posses much higher risk than farmed

I think the opposite is true for salmon