Avoid Pesticides, Hormones, Bleached Flour . . . and Slugs!

The following story—"Australia: Man’s Serious Illness Shows the Danger of Daring to Eat a Garden-Variety Slug" by Donald G. McNeil Jr.—appears in today's New York Times and is too mind-boggling to not offer in full, with its accompanying photo. And here I thought eating fruits and vegetables sprayed with pesticides was taking a chance!

"An Australian man has been hospitalized for more than a month in serious condition as a result of eating two garden slugs on a dare, according to Australian news media and ProMED , an online service that tracks disease outbreaks.

"The 21-year-old Sydney man apparently contracted a rat lungworm parasite from the slugs, which pick it up from rodent droppings. The parasite, a nematode called Angiostrongylus cantonensis, can cause fatal brain swelling.

"The ProMED moderator who reported the case said the life cycle of the nematode was described in Australia 50 years ago. It infects not just slugs, rats and humans but also dogs, horses, flying fox bats and marsupials like kangaroos. It can also be caught from unwashed vegetables.

“'We hope this will help to remind others to avoid eating raw slugs,' the moderator, Eskild Petersen, said.

"The disease is more common in Thailand, where koi-hoi, a dish with raw snail meat, is eaten; residents of Hawaii have been infected by eating improperly washed lettuce with tiny slugs on it.

"Escargots — snails baked in a garlic butter sauce — are generally safe, although they can trigger shellfish allergies. Snails 'ranched' for restaurants (like those pictured above) are raised on clean feed and purged. Garden snails may contain poisons, including snail bait. There has been at least one report of people who developed erratic heart rhythms after eating stew made from snails that had eaten oleander leaves, which contain digoxin, a cardiac drug."