Australia’s wild food foraging community has been left shocked after a live worm was found in a woman’s brain following a parasitic infection believed to have been picked up after collecting and consuming greens and grasses from local bushland.
The 64-year-old woman from south-eastern New South Wales last year had an 8cm-long live parasitic roundworm pulled from her brain in a world first. The creatures are usually found in pythons.
Doctors and scientists hypothesised the Ophidascaris robertsi worm eggs could have been shed by a carpet python in grasses and warrigal greens at a lake where the patient collected them.
They believe she was probably infected with the parasite from touching the grasses and transferring the eggs to food or kitchen utensils, or after eating the greens.
News articles explaining the situation were shared widely among foraging circles after the story broke on Tuesday, with some people swearing off the practice. But most people said they would continue to pick their own food, despite the “freaky” story.
Sydney-based expert forager and guide Diego Bonetto said he had never heard of anything similar in his decades of foraging.
“It’s extremely rare. It’s never happened before,” he said. “Food poisoning from regular restaurants is far more likely than contracting some parasites from collecting plants from the wild.”
He urged anyone collecting food from the environment to be aware of the dangers and take appropriate precautions including washing and cooking vegetable matter.
“If you are interested in foraging, you want to know the basics – proper identification, know the place that you harvest and clean the produce before ingesting,” he said.
“You should always clean the produce you harvest from any environment.”
Food foraging involves collecting edible and medicinal plants from the environment. It has been practised for a long time and is still popular among some groups and in some cultures.
Keen forager Sam Pedro said he had experienced many injuries and ailments while collecting food including getting giardia from “handling poop attached to mushrooms” and being bitten by spiders, and would continue to do so. Giardia is a tiny parasite that causes diarrhoea.
“My reaction is that life is full of risks, and I still choose to forage,” he said.
Sydney forager Sarah described the case as “freaky for sure” but vowed to keep picking things.
“Foraging is such a natural delight,” she said. “I would choose to learn how to reduce such risks and ways to forage safely over not foraging at all.”
Another forager, Gabby Stefanutti, said proper preparation and cleaning was required whatever the food source, be it wild or store-bought.
“They don’t talk about all the food poisoning which is happening on a daily basis, because of all the chemicals which they put into our food,” she said. “It’s important to wash and prepare all foods properly before consumption.”
The NSW patient first presented to hospital in January 2021 after suffering three weeks of abdominal pain and diarrhoea, followed by a constant dry cough, fever and night sweats.
By the following year she was also experiencing forgetfulness and depression. A scan of her brain revealed abnormalities requiring surgery, which was when the worm was found.
The patient is recovering well, according to her doctors, and researchers have been exploring whether a pre-existing medical condition that caused her to be immunocompromised could have led to the larvae taking hold.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three-quarters of new or emerging infectious diseases in people come from animals.
