TWiP 276: Travel history is the key

TWiP 276: Travel history is the key

From This Week in Parasitism by Vincent Racaniello

March 23, 2026 · 1h 17m · Episode 276

About this episode

The episode discusses a case of a man experiencing symptoms after a hunting trip in Japan.

TWiP solves the case of the man in his 60s experiencing weight loss, fatigue, and loss of appetite. Hosts: Vincent Racaniello , Daniel Griffin , and Christina Naula Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts , Google Podcasts , RSS , email Links for this episode Join the MicrobeTV Discord server Hero: Bailey K. Ashford Letters read on TWiP 276 TWiP study – information and survey New Case Male in his 20s from Hokkaido, Japan, developed fatigue and rash, followed by fever and myalgia 6 days later. He was a group of five individuals on a hunting trip prior to this and reports that 3 friends are just fine but one other individual developed similar symptoms. He reports that they had been hunting the Ussuri brown bear, which is larger and more aggressive than the Asian black bear. They had been successful and all five of them had consumed well cooked bear meat. He does share that he is aware of infectious risk from eating bear and thus the meat was well cooked. He and the one fellow hunter who did get sick were unique in that they each ate one of the eye balls raw. This is a tradition that is felt to give the consumer the great vision that these animals are purported to have. Become a patron of…

People in this episode

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Daniel Griffin, Christina Naula

Topics covered

  • parasitism
  • travel history
  • infectious diseases
  • case study
  • hunting traditions

Keywords

  • weight loss
  • fatigue
  • loss of appetite
  • infectious risk
  • bear meat

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Hokkaido, Japan, Ussuri brown bear

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