Usually infection comes from exposing bare feet to an infected area. Trichinella spiralis causes trichinosis . Infection results from eating undercooked pork from an infected pig. Life cycle of the helminth is entirely in body of mammalian hosts. Humans are accidental hosts .
Infection occurs when the larvae inside a protective cyst embedded in pig muscle is ingested.
Larvae are then released from the cyst by human digestive juices. The released larvae mate in our digestive tract and the males are expelled in feces. The females burrow through the gut wall into blood stream and are carried to all muscle tissue in the body. The cyst causes an inflammatory response which damages the muscle. If there is damage to the heart or diaphram the infection can be fatal.