{"id":866815,"date":"2026-08-22T00:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T00:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/866815\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T00:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T00:50:09","slug":"dangerous-parasite-found-in-walrus-harvested-in-naujaat-nunavut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/866815\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangerous parasite found in walrus harvested in Naujaat, Nunavut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 1 minute<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<p>Nunavut health authorities are warning hunters in the hamlet of Naujaat that a walrus harvested in the community earlier this month has tested positive for a dangerous parasite.<\/p>\n<p>In a release sent Friday, the Department of Health said a walrus hunted on Aug. 10 had tested positive for trichinella, a type of roundworm.<\/p>\n<p>If ingested, trichinella can cause stomach pain, muscle pain, diarrhea, swollen eyelids, sweating and weakness.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone with these symptoms after eating uncooked walrus is advised to seek medical attention.<\/p>\n<p>Trichinella can only be detected through testing, so health authorities are also advising hunters to have any walrus meat tested before consuming it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hunters who get their meat tested are protecting their communities,&#8221; the release reads. &#8220;Any walrus could have trichinella.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Before eating walrus that someone else caught, ask if it has been tested,&#8221; it reads.<\/p>\n<p>Freezing or fermenting meat does not kill the parasite. It can only be killed through cooking.<\/p>\n<p>The release advises anyone handling uncooked walrus to thoroughly wash and sanitize any utensils that come in contact, and avoid feeding uncooked walrus meat to pets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 1 minute The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-866815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}