Sickened pork workers have new nerve disorder

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Eighteen pork plant workers in Minnesota, at least five in Indiana and one in Nebraska have come down with a mysterious neurological condition they appear to have contracted while removing brains from slaughtered pigs, U.S. researchers and health officials said on Wednesday.


They said the illness is a new disorder that causes a range of symptoms, from inflammation of the spinal cord to mild weakness, fatigue, numbness and tingling in the arms and legs.

"As far as we are aware it is a brand new disorder," said Dr. Daniel Lachance of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who presented his findings at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Chicago.

www.reuters.com...


I swear there is a new disease every other month. Is this the next bird flu?

Will there every be a cure and what the hell would this new disease called? Any answers or suggestions?

It sounds more like the new CJK disease. I wonder what long term effects this will have on the afflicted.

reply to post by Karlhungis


I had a feeling Karl would have a idea. So is CJK similiar to mad cow disease. Have there been any reported cases of CJK or madcow in the US?

I wonder if it has anything to do with parasites!
Pigs are filled with them, sometimes!
Dr. Mercola

Although more often found in animals, if humans swallow the parasite eggs, the resulting larvae can sometimes penetrate the intestines and settle in the lungs, liver, or brain causing large cysts.

Here is a list of 3 major internal parasites and it doesn't even take into account the tapeworm!
Parasites in swine
One microbiologist I was reading about wrote that bloodflukes could mimic leukemia and PROTOZOA could mimic the papilloma virus!
HerbalHealer.com

***edit for better link and replacement of amoeba for protozoa.

[edit on 16-4-2008 by Clearskies]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I have passed this info onto my superiors as this is very disturbing news for me in particular. I work for a major player in the processed pork industry in Australia and we import a lot of pork from the USA and Canada. Although the Australian Quarantine service is VERY strict with permits, and requirements for the importation of pork. (no lymph nodes, bones offal etc) as well as how it is dealt with and processed once it arrives, there is really no telling what can slip through the net so to speak..
I will be very interested to see what comes of this and if it is in fact a disease of sorts or a reaction to handling the brain as suggested in the article.
I am sure AQIS will also be very interested in following this one.

reply to post by Clearskies


Not to mention PWMS (Post Weaning Mortality Syndrome) which is rife in the pork industry in the States/Canada. It can be devistating to farms. Luckily we dont have it hear which is why we are so stringent.

[edit on 16/4/2008 by VIKINGANT]

www.cjdfoundation.org...

In humans the best known of the prion diseases is Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), which reportedly affects around one person per million per year. In the United States this translates to 250-300 new cases per year. It is well known that CJD is very difficult to diagnose leading to speculation that the one case per million report may be incorrect. Most of the cases are "classical" or "sporadic" CJD (sCJD), occurring for no, as yet, known reason. The sporadic form accounts for approximately 85% of the cases, the familial form approximately 15%. There have also been a few cases which have occurred from contamination via medical procedures; this type is known as iatrogenic or Acquired CJD. Finally over the last few years, another type of Acquired CJD called variant (vCJD) has been identified in young people. vCJD has been linked to ingestion of beef tainted with BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), most cases have occurred in the United Kingdom.

There was quite a bit of evidence regarding feeding cow remains to cows spreading Mad Cow disease that led to the banning of such feed to cows. However, few people realize this legislation did not prohibit using these banned by products in the feed of other animals (not sure about the standing of pigs) such as chickens, farm raised fish, our pets, etc.

In return, by products of these animals ARE still permitted to be used in cattle feed.

It wouldn't surprise me if this were some variant of Mad Cow, but if it's something entirely new we have to worry about.....that's probably worse.