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Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have decoded the genome of the parasitic worm that causes trichinosis. Trichinosis is a common infection caused by eating undercooked meat that contains cysts of a roundworm called Trichinella spiralis.

Reporting online in the journal Nature Genetics, researchers said their investigation of the worm's genome turned up unique features of the creature that could provide potential targets for new medications to fight the illness. Worldwide about 11 million suffer from the infection.

"It takes less than two weeks for larvae to travel from the intestine to muscle where they live," explained lead author of the new paper Makedonka Mitreva, an assistant professor of genetics at Washington University's Genome Center.

"Once the worms invade the muscle, drugs are less effective. While the disease is rarely deadly, patients often live for months or years with chronic muscle pain and fatigue until the worms eventually die."

The work on the trichinosis-causing worm could help scientists learn about other parasitic roundworms that infect about 2 billion people worldwide.

In the following video, Mitreva describes trichinosis and the applications of her genomic work: