Medical mystery solved in slaughterhouse

Kruse had worked at Quality Pork Processors, or QPP, for more than 15 years. But the commonalities didn't end there.

The Minnesota Department of Health was urgently brought into the QPP plant, where more than 19,000 hogs are slaughtered each day.

"When we looked a little further, it seemed that these workers were clustered in a particular part of the plant," according to Dr. Ruth Lynfield, a leading epidemiologist at the Minnesota Department of Health.

Lynfield surveyed the plant with QPP President Kelly Wadding. They focused their attention on a section of the plant called the "head table." It was the area where brain tissue was harvested and packaged for export.

The market for pig brain tissue includes the American South, in dishes like brains and eggs. It's also sold in some Asian countries, such as Cambodia and China, to be used in various recipes including stir-fry and stew. The brain tissue processed at QPP was used mainly for export to Asia.

State and federal health authorities have said eating the pork brains is completely safe. It's the specific harvesting method, called "blowing brains," that posed the health risk.

In the procedure, high blasts of compressed air were shot into the head cavity to remove the brains. Sometimes the liquid combined with brain tissue and turned into a mist.

Health investigators said droplets of the mist could have entered a worker's system through the mucous membranes in the nose or mouth. Once in the body, the foreign pig brain matter prompted the immune system to produce antibodies to attack it in a process similar to an allergic reaction.

But the foreign matter seems to have also triggered an attack on the body's nerve tissue, killing some of the nerves and causing the mysterious numbness.

On January 31, 2008, the CDC gave a new name to the unique constellation of ailments: Progressive Inflammatory Neuropathy, or PIN.

read more @ http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/02/28/medical.mystery/index.html


I chose this article to share because it is yet another example of humans contracting diseases, or medical problems from animals. The scariest flu to come around in a long time is the Asian bird flu, which could be a serious problem if it were to take off. This on the other hand comes from pigs brains, which were ironically going to Asia. It seems they just have no luck. But I thought it was interesting mainly because I myself do not like being around farm animals besides horses, and as far as I know, you cant get a disease from a horse just yet. So everyone look out for animals because they can give you something hurtful.