Trichina worms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Trichinella_larv1_DPDx.JPG

Trichinella spiralis is a tiny nematode that causes the potentially fatal disease trichinosis. Humans typically become infected by eating undercooked pork. Trichinella lives in cysts formed in individual muscle cells of the host.

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Trichinella when it hatches from an ingested cyst in its hosts gut drills through the wall of the gut where females produce living young.

These juveniles travels in the circulatory system to a muscle. The juvenile penetrates an individual muscle cell and breaks the cell down so it can be remade.

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Trichinella, just as a virus does, manipulates the host cells DNA. It causes the cell to recruit a blood supply to supply food to the cell and also produce collagen to form a cyst around the cell. The Trichinella juvenile awaits ingestion by another host. When ingested it emerges from its cysts enters the mucosal lining of gut, develops into an adult and continues the life cycle.

Trichinella life cycle in humans

http://www.trichinella.org/bio_lifecycle.htm

Trichina worms
Adults usually do not persist long in the gut before being expelled by the hosts immune system. Trichinella occurs commonly in wild animals such as foxes, wolves and bears. Smaller mammals such as skunks, raccoons and rats, which commonly associate with people, are the main sources of domestic pig infections.

http://www.foodsafetyindia.nic.in/images/Trichinella_LifeCycle.gif

Trichina worms
Pigs may become infected by eating fecal matter or the bodies of animals infected with the parasite. Humans are an inadvertent host of Trichinella.
In humans, infection with a few Trichinella parasites may cause no symptoms, but heavy infections can cause intense muscle pain and in some cases death.

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