Rare illness sickens 11 at Austin pork plant. Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy.

[Beausoir]

THE ILLNESS

Five workers at Quality Pork Processors in Austin, Minn., have been confirmed as having chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy or CIDP. The rare disease is an inflammation of the nervous system that can cause muscle weakness, tingling sensations in the arms and legs and pain over several months.
Eleven workers at an Austin, Minn., pork processing plant mysteriously fell ill between last December and July with a neurological disorder whose cause remains unknown, state health officials said Monday.
The condition afflicting five of the workers at Quality Pork Processors Inc. has been identified as a rare disease called chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy or CIDP, which normally strikes fewer than two people per 100,000. In this instance, it may have struck 11 out of about 100 people in a particular part of the plant, state officials said. It is most often a chronic disease that results in nerve damage and can lead to disability.

Never before have so many cases of this type occurred in a particular locale, specific type of work, or in association with a particular animal, experts said.



http://www.startribune.com/535/story/1589037.html

[raccoon]

1. They better go get themselves a good lawyer, now.

[Beausoir]

3. All 11 worked in one specific area of the plant. Dealing with brain matter.

"That part of the production line uses compressed air to clear away unwanted brain tissue so that meat in the head of the pig can be removed, Wadding said."

So now, the company has given them goggles. And towels for their showers.
Such compassion.

[kestrel91316]

6. The goggles are helpful. But I'm wondering why no RESPIRATORS?????

You know, so they don't inhale the infectious agent from the aerosolized pig brains........

This is a major breakthrough - sometimes it takes a cluster or outbreak to put the pieces of the puzzle of disease together.

My guess is, there is a previously unknown viral pathogen in some pigs that causes no disease in them, but DOES cause disease in certain susceptible humans.

[havocmom]

2. Hmmm an auto-immune disorder in people working with meat raised on antibiotics

There's an important message in there somewhere.

Thanks for the post.

[Beausoir]

4. More specifically, working with the brains of animals raised on antibiotics.

[kestrel91316]

9. Not sure why everybody is blithely assuming antibiotics have

anything to do with this disease.

My money is on a novel porcine virus, previously undetected, that lurks in the pig brain just waiting for stupid humans to aerosolize and inhale it......

[Beausoir]

17. I'm not blithely assuming anything. I have no idea what is causing this.

I found the article interesting and scary. So I posted it.

Jesus. Find a flamewar somewhere else, wouldya?

[kestrel91316]

20. Just stamping out the flames of misconceptions wherever I see them.

[kestrel91316]

8. Not sure why you think antibiotics have anything to do with

either this or any other auto-immune disease. Can you explain the connection?

Routine feeding of antibiotics to livestock is a deplorable policy that results in needless development of antibiotic resistance by pathogenic bacteria. There is no evidence that that's what is going on here.

(disclaimer: I have a BS in Microbiology and a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine)

[Lance_Boyle]

12. Don't you know?

Antibiotics are ALMOST as evil as vaccines. It all a scam by big pharma, to suppress knowledge of the superior efficacy of whatever the miracle root powder of the week is in woowoo land.

[kestrel91316]

13. So true. And you also know that as a veterinarian, every single word

that passes my lips is a bald-faced LIE because I am bought and paid for by Hill's Pet Nutrition and other of my suppliers.

:evilgrin:

[havocmom]

16. If they aren't part of a lot of problems, why the push to cut the use of them

by most in the medical field? You really can't deny they have been WAY over used and that has resulted in bigger, better bugs.

[kestrel91316]

19. Certainly. I am vehemently opposed to the chronic misuse of antibiotics

in livestock.

My point was, there's no reason to jump to the conclusion that antibiotics have anything whatsoever to this IMMUNE-MEDIATED disease. You simply CAN'T blame them for ALL the world's ills.

[havocmom]

15. Can't help but wonder about an, as yet undiscovered link,

between the fact that we have antibiotics everywhere around us AND we seem to be having more and more problems with all sorts of auto-immune disease. There is a lot of observable evidence that SOMETHING is going on and our bodies are destroying themselves.

[kestrel91316]

21. They are finding out a link between increasing incidence of autoimmune

diseases such as Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis and lack of intestinal parasite infections due to our modern plumbing systems and clean drinking water, lol. My take on it is that certain "parasites" are not "parasites" at all, but rather "commensals". In other words, they are a vital part of our bodies, just like the E. coli that fills our intestines and without which we would die.

Again, it's not always about antibiotics. And they do far more good than harm. Don't be throwing the baby out with the bath water.

[opihimoimoi]

5. Its them CLOVEN HOOVES...raise Pot not Pigs

[KamaAina]

7. Oh, dear. It is where Spam originates after all.

As you may know, Hawai'i consumes more Spam per capita than any other state (although Guam out-Spams even us by a wide margin). At least one establishment is known to use it as a pizza topping. We even have a "Spam Jam" in Waikiki every year. So when I saw the combination of Austin, Minn., pork, and disease, naturally I sucked in a breath. Then I saw the name "Quality Pork Processors", rather than Hormel, and relaxed... for a second...

http://www.qppinc.net/index.html

Quality Pork Processors Inc. began operations on June 19, 1989. We are a co-packer with Hormel Foods Corporation with Hormel as our only customer. We do the slaughter, cut and conversion of fresh pork products.

:scared: :scared: :scared:

As for me, I seldom touch the stuff, save for an occasional musubi (popular local snack food consisting of a slice of Spam atop a block of sticky rice, wrapped with a strip of nori seaweed). However, a tainted Spam scare could well cause widespread panic throughout the islands!

[madokie]

11. a big tick slice of spam fried in butter makes a good samwich or used to be anyway I thought

sautee onions in the butter first then fry the spam until its pretty browned

[Ikonoklast]

10. I ate SPAM once, and had those symptoms

But it was just that SPAM is poison in a can.


Seriously, there must be a direct correlation between the aspiration or absorption of porcine neural matter and the onset of the CIDP. I hope that if they can determine the vector, a treatment will result from further studies.

[kestrel91316]

14. I have questions for QPP - Do you perhaps process ANY genetically modified

pigs whatsoever? Did such genetic modifications include insertion of any human genes? If you did process any GMO pigs, on what dates were they processed? Who are the workers that removed brains from those pigs on those days? Have any of those workers been affected?

Enquiring minds SOOOOO want to know.

[kestrel91316]

18. Some good sources for info on CIDP:

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/cidp/cidp.htm

http://www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic467.htm

VERY curious to note that CIDP is very similar to Guillain-Barre syndrome, which came to light after the Swine flu vaccine fiasco in the 1970s:
http://www.gbsfi.com/aboutgbs.htm
Things that make you go HMMMMMMM............those pesky pigs again.......