Doctors warn of kangaroo meat bug

Australians have been warned against eating undercooked game meat, including kangaroo and wallaby, after doctors discovered what could be a new parasite spread to humans.

Professor John Goldsmid, professor of medical microbiology at the University of Tasmania, said that a parasite had been found in a Tasmanian man who had suffered severe muscle weakness. At one stage he needed a ventilator and tracheotomy to breathe.

The professor told the Australian College of General Practitioners in Hobart, that the patient was a big eater of native meat and undercooked wallaby and kangaroo involved "probable dangers".

The International Fund for Animal Welfare, which is campaigning against "the cruelty of kangaroo slaughter and the unhygienic treatment of the meat", called on supermarkets in this country to stop selling kangaroo meat. It says the meat "has been touted as the new `healthy' alternative to red meat in the UK yet it may cause unimagined health problems".

- Glenda Cooper