Pork Workers Suffer Neurological Illnesses

(CBS/AP)  State health officials said Monday they were investigating neurological illnesses among 11 workers at a pork processing plant, but that there was no evidence that the public was at risk.

Health Commissioner Dr. Sanne Magnan also said there was no evidence that the food coming out of Quality Pork Processing in Austin has been contaminated.

The workers who became ill had symptoms such as numbness, and tingling in their arms and legs.

"I started getting charley horses on the back of my legs that wouldn't go away at all," former QPP employee Susan Kruse told CBS station WCCO-TV. "I kept getting worse and worse. Come February I ended up going to the doctor, 'cause I could hardly walk anymore."

Two were hospitalized for a time. Some of the workers recovered completely, while others are still going through rehabilitation, Magnan said.

Five of the workers had symptoms consistent with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, a condition characterized by progressive weakness and impaired sensory functions in legs and arms. It is treated with steroids and immunosuppressant drugs, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The patients included men and women from a range of ages and ethnicities, said State Epidemiologist Ruth Lynfield. But they all worked in the same part of the plant, removing hog brains with compressed air.

None of the plant's other 1,300 workers reported similar symptoms, and there have been no similar reports at Minnesota's other large hog slaughterhouse in Worthington, officials said.

Quality Pork owner and CEO Kelly Wadding said workers who butcher the hog heads have been given more protective clothing and no longer use compressed air to remove brains.

He said Quality Pork's production levels have not been reduced because of the illnesses.

Hormel Foods Corp., which is based in Austin, is Quality Pork's main customer.

Staff nurses at Quality Pork noticed the first symptoms in December 2006, and a total of 10 cases had come in through July, Magnan said.

Doctors in Austin, about 90 miles south of Minneapolis, and at Mayo Clinic in Rochester tried to determine what was making the workers sick.

Mayo reported the matter to the state Health Department in late October, Lynfield said.

She said the symptoms are not consistent with a repetitive stress injury or with the family of diseases that include mad cow disease or scrapie in sheep, which are linked to proteins called prions.

But while those diseases cause irreversible brain deterioration, most of the workers in Austin have recovered. "That's not something you expect with a prion disease," she said.

[polyglot7]

Has there been any research done to see if there is a connection between demyelinating polyneuropathy and Multiple Sclerosis? Is there any possibility that the autoimmune drugs that are helping the workers could help those who suffer from MS?
Could there also be a connection with the cause? It seems like MS occurs among those who live or grew up more in Northern climates, so I''ve read. In that matter, could there be a connection between MS and the influenza preferring cold, dry weather? (see a related article on the CBS site at about this same date.) Just pondering a few things. . . .

[polyglot7]

Has there been any research to see if there is a connection between this disease and MS? Is it possible that what helps demyelinating polyneuropathy could also help those who suffer from MS?

[davek455]

rushman71 - come on. There was a distinct reason why governing authorities in the Biblical days forbid their citizens to eat portk and it had nothing to do with God''s wishes and everything to do with lack of sanitary practices and lack of refrigeration. Move beyond religion. I love Jews, but too many rules based on outdated notions.

[rf35]

Just to be safe, they should recall the pork products made since the illness first appeared...and send it to Sudan.

[rushman71]

Maybe some people would someday come to realize the reason why God told the Israelites not to eat pork. Oy vey!!!