Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the International Commission on Trichinellosis: An early example of Franco-German collaboration to study the Trichinellosis outbreak of Emersleben (1883).

Two prominent physicians, Grancher and Brouardel, were sent by the French Health authorities to study the severe ongoing outbreak of trichinellosis in Emersleben, Germany (1883). They produced a highly accurate description of the outbreak and confirmed that they had never observed such cases in France. Grancher performed two necropsies and very precisely described the histological lesions provoked by the larvae entering and transforming muscular fibers. They also had the opportunity to meet Virchow in Berlin and they emphasized his extreme kindness. This French medical mission and cooperation with famous German scientists such as Virchow is probably one of the first examples of international collaboration on trichinellosis. It prefigured the international collaborative efforts made by the International Commission on Trichinellosis which was created in 1958 and is still active.