Friday, January 13, 2006

Egypt Mummy Shows Taste for Pork

"In a study to be published in the coming months in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Fabrizio Bruschi, a pathologist from Italy's Pisa University, and colleagues report the discovery of the oldest known case of cysticercosis — a pig-related disease — in a mummy from the late Ptolemaic period (II-I century B.C.). Often contracted from undercooked pork, cysticercosis is an infection caused by the pork tapeworm Taenia solium. Known as the 'mummia di Narni,' from the town in central Italy where it is kept, the mummy belongs to a young woman about 20 years old. Most likely an upper-class lady, she rests in a beautiful wooden sarcophagus." See the above article on the Discovery Channel website for more.
The website for the American Journal of Tripical Medicne and Hygiene can be found at:

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