Stowaways
At first glance, strawberries growing on a bed or berries in the forest seem clean to us, at most dusted with sand or soil. However, there is a lot of life on them: bacteria (salmonella, e.coli), fungi, and sometimes larvae and eggs of parasites. We can throw another one in there ourselves if we pick and eat fruit with dirty hands, play in the sand with children or stroke a four-legged pet. It is estimated that more than 70 percent of all poisonings worldwide are the result of a lack of hygiene, meaning that we don't wash our hands before eating. The microorganisms lead to bothersome but relatively mild symptoms - diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fever. Such symptoms can appear right after a meal, but just as well the next day. In such a case, care should be taken to take in adequate amounts of fluids, as the discomfort can lead to dehydration, which is particularly dangerous for children.
Far more dangerous consequences for health are long-developing parasitic zoonotic diseases such as echinococcosis, toxoplasmosis or toxocariasis. In their case, one can even speak of life-threatening.
Going berry picking
Forest fruits are the most common source of infection with echinococcosis - a disease caused by tiny, several-millimeter-long, single- and multi-mammalian tapeworms, Echinococcus genus. Their carriers are foxes, wolves, less frequently raccoons (which are not yet found everywhere in Poland) and dogs and cats (hence you can get infected not only in the forest). Humans are their intermediate hosts, accidentally infecting themselves by eating unwashed fruit, on which there are echinococcus eggs. It is also possible, though less common, to become infected through contact with contaminated soil or water, or possibly through touch - foxes and wolves are unlikely to be stroked, but tapeworm eggs can be found in saliva, as well as on dog fur. They are very viable - they can wait in the soil for a year for a host, and, for example, the temperature of minus 70 degrees kills them only after a few days, so they are encountered even near th...
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