LET’S BREAK THE PORK TAPEWORM CYCLE
with these 6 easy steps
1. Always use a toilet.
Use a toilet to stop worm eggs infecting pigs and other 
6. people.  
Cook meat well.
It is better to be safe than sorry.  Pork must be cooked 
thoroughly so that there is no pink meat and no blood 
running out. This will kill any tapeworm cysts and prevent 
infection. 
This child has a tapeworm  
growing inside him.
photo:Ontario Veterin
ar
Thousands of tapeworm eggs  
come out with the faeces. 
People get tapeworms  Tapeworm segments can be seen in the faeces.  
when they eat the cysts  They release thousands of eggs into the environment.
in undercooked meat. 2. Wash your hands.
5. Check meat is safe. Tapeworm eggs are too small to see and spread 
easily. So wash your hands well with soap and 
 The tapeworm  clean water after using the toilet and before 
Check meat carefully to make sure there are no The pork tapeworm (Taenia solium)  touching food.
cysts. Meat with cysts should not be eaten or sold. lives inside the small intestine.   
It eats our food and can grow 
 up to 3 metres long.
 Tapeworm cysts
 in the brain, eyes or 
muscles cause epilepsy 
(fits), blindness, paralysis, 
severe headaches,  
insanity and even death.
The eggs spread easily. 
ph  Worm eggs can contaminate the soil and water supply. 
oto: Mathias Boa P They also get on our hands, food and drinking water.
ORK TAPEWORM CY Wash fruit and vegetables.
Boil drinking water.
 
Pork infected with cysts. 3. Go to the clinic.
The eggs grow into cysts and 
4. Stop pigs from roaming.  can be found in infected meat.       photo: T. Nash If you think you  
have tapeworm,  
Keep your pigs in a kraal or tied to a go to the clinic  
stake, so that they can’t eat human and get treatment  
faeces containing tapeworm eggs. as soon as 
possible.
  
Deworming 
medicine will kill 
the tapeworm 
and stop you from 
Swallowing tapeworm eggs is dangerous. infecting pigs and 
Pigs get infected.  Tapeworm eggs grow into cysts in the brain, eyes and other people.
Free-range pigs get infected by eating human  muscles causing epilepsy (fits), blindness,  
faeces containing tapeworm eggs. paralysis, severe headaches, insanity and even death.
©  Krecek and Krecek cc, International Livestock Research Institute and Medical Research Council (2005)
Illustrated by Barry Jackson and designed by Lori Lake. International Cysticercosis Coordination Center,  
WHO/FAO Collaborating Center for Parasitic Zoonoses
CLE
y College, University
 of 
Gu
elph, Canada.
     T
HE