Wouldn’t it make sense to do this just in case?
In: Biology
On one hand, deworming has a pretty bad effect on internal organs, at least temporarily. It’s not something that is taken lightly. On the other hand, people generally have much better hygiene than animals, particularly with regards to our food. It does not make sense to do this for no good reason.
Why? Animals are at a much higher risk of parasites than humans. Humans, outside of specific environments, aren’t usually at risk. In the developed world, pin worms are the most common, but it is usually self-limiting and even then not as widespread as to warrant prophylactic treatment. Pets are usually given prevention for heartworms, which is not a concern for humans.
Most people don’t eat other animal’s poop or dirt or dead rodents and stuff. Most people don’t walk around in the forest or wherever and then spend the rest of the afternoon licking their feet.
To get many parasites, you need to ingest their eggs, basically. Parasite eggs are present in the excrement of other animals that have parasites. If you avoid eating that, like by washing your food carefully, you don’t need to worry about it
Some parasites also might be present in some animal’s meat, but if you thoroughly cook it it will kill them, so again, no need to worry about it for most people. If you’re regularly consuming undercooked pork or ground beef there might be a risk
I don’t regularly deworm my cat because there’s no need. He’s an indoor cat and so is unlikely to eat something with parasites. Most humans are the same.
Worms generally make it into pets by them consuming prey that are not domesticated, such as mice, rabbits, or birds (living or dead). Generally whatever we feed them is processed and safe, but what they consume this way doesn’t have that same safety net. *Add to that*, humans tend to prefer their meat cooked.
There was recently someone commenting from what they referred to as a poorer country and they said they actually do take something every 6-12 months.
Take that as you will though
Can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m not regularly de-wormed because I don’t regularly have worms.
did you see that bear tape worm (parachute) video and get a bit panicky? because I get it… it was horrifying.
The short answer is that the worm poison is bad for your body.
Having worm is in some way even beneficial for you body since your immune system has evolved to be exposed to some worms. Haven worms is associated with lower risks of allergy and there are even treatments where you on purpose expose a person to worm antigens, to trigger a response of the immune system.
So there is no point of profylakse treatment of worm, but you do it if the worm infection is present and doesn’t clear itself.
Medication costs money and has side effects, modern society’s hygiene makes infection rare, and humans are more able to notice and communicate the symptoms than animals.
So it doesn’t make sense to regularly deworm and instead just get treatment when symptoms are noticed.
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