According to the International Commission on Trichinellosis survey in 2004, Romania has the most cases of trichinellosis in the world. Epidemiologic data for each county were collected and analyzed from two different time periods: before (1980–1989) and after (1990–2004) political changes. Data were analyzed separately for Transylvania and the rest of the Romanian counties. During the past 25 years, 28,293 human cases of trichinellosis were reported with an incidence of 51.0 cases per 10⁶ persons per year. An important increase in the incidence was observed from 1980 to 1989 compared with the 1990–2004 period. For the entire period, the incidence rate obtained for Transylvanian counties (82.2 cases per 10⁶ persons per year) was higher than the incidence rate obtained for the other counties (35.7 cases per 10⁶ persons per year). Hypotheses and facts contributing to the heterogeneity of human trichinellosis cases are discussed.

Larvae of Trichinella sp. were identified in a golden jackal (Canis aureus) from Romania by both trichinelloscopy and artificial digestion. The larvae were identified as Trichinella britovi using a multiplex polymerase chain reaction biotyping method. This is the first report of Trichinella sp. in a jackal in Romania.

Until now, four species of the Trichinella genus have been identified in Europe: Trichinella spiralis, T. nativa, T. britovi and T. pseudospiralis. The aim of this work was to establish a sound polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method to differentiate these four species using mitochondrial rDNA as a reliable genetic marker and to evaluate the sensitivity of this method. Full-length DNA sequences coding for the small and large mitochondrial rRNA (mt-rrnS and mt-rrnL) of the four species are described. A multiplex PCR was designed and successfully tested on 24 European isolates. As few as one larva, or 100 pg of genomic DNA was detected, providing equivalent sensitivity to previously described PCR methods. The PCR-based method of mitochondrial rDNA amplification was thereby established as a sensitive and reproductive diagnostic method for the four European Trichinella species.