File:The cheese skipper as a pest in cured meats (1453) (20415818688).jpg

Title: The cheese skipper as a pest in cured meats
Identifier: cheeseskipperasp1453simm (find matches)
Year: 1927 (1920s)
Authors: Simmons, Perez, 1892-
Subjects: Meat; Insect pests; Meat industry and trade
Publisher: Washington, D. C. : U. S. Dept. of Agriculture
Contributing Library: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library
Digitizing Sponsor: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library

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8 BULLETIN 1453, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE NATURE OF INJURY TO CURED MEATS The injury to cured meats which results from cheese-skipper in- festation is usually deep-seated. This is in contrast to the work of other ham pests such as the red-legged ham beetle (Necrohia rufipes DeGeer), which usually burrows near the surface in the soft fat or just beneath the hide, and the larder beetle (Dermestes lardarius L.), which is also typically a surface feeder. The favorite starting place for skipper infestation is at the butt end of newly smoked hams and shoulders. Here, where the soft muscles and the connective tissue are exposed in cross section, are ideal feeding areas, the muscles often being somewhat separated, a condition which encourages penetra- tion by the maggots. In hams entrance is effected frequently
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 1.—Cross section through middle of a dry-cured ham badly injured by feeding of larvae of PiopJiila casei. The outer layer of fat at the upper left has collapsed over the eaten-out cavities. Much reduced around the exposed bone on the inside, and less often at the hock end where the string passes through, in the small but deep holes left by the inspector's trier, and in small cuts. In the usual well-advanced infestation the insects are found at the center of the meat, in the vicinity of the joint of the bones. In cured meat, putridity does not usually become marked until the infestation is rather old and consequently fouled by larval excreta. New colonies of the larvae, even though extensive, have little offensive odor, but the cavities of hams infested for some time give off a strong moldy-sour odor similar to that of old brood comb. Murtfeldt (53, p. 172) noted the lack of putrefaction in infested hams, but Sakharov (67) has given data to show that in infested fish the skipper maggots have a symbiotic relationship with an un- determined putrefactive organism.

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