At least three workers at an Indiana pork processing facility and 13 at a Minnesota plant were believed to have the disease, identified as progressive inflammatory neuropathy, or PIN, said Centers for Disease Control veterinarian Jennifer McQuiston, who is part of the investigating team.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Government health officials are investigating the cause of a neurological illness found among employees at two U.S. pork plants where workers used compressed air to remove brain matter from pig skulls during processing.
At least three workers at an Indiana pork processing facility and 13 at a Minnesota plant were believed to have the disease, identified as progressive inflammatory neuropathy, or PIN, said Centers for Disease Control veterinarian Jennifer McQuiston, who is part of the investigating team.
The compressed air technique is not a common one at U.S. pork plants. Only three large U.S. plants were found to employ the practice, the Minnesota and Indiana plants, as well as a Nebraska plant where there have been no suspected cases of
PIN.
!ADVERTISEMENT!All three plants have since suspended the practice as a precaution.
The suspected cases in Minnesota were among employees of Quality Pork Producers and Hormel Foods, according the Minnesota Department of Health. The Indiana plant has not been identified, but was believed to be owned by Indiana Packers because it was the only one in the state that used the compressed air technique, pork industry sources said.
The workers suspected to have developed PIN had all been in regular contact with pig brain matter that may have been cast into the air by the compressed air-harvesting practice, known as "blowing brains."
"It is a leading theory that by aerosolizing the brain material, people were being exposed to it either by breathing it in or getting in contact with it through their eyes or other mucus membranes," McQuiston said.
"We don't truly know whether it's an infectious disease they were being exposed to via that route or simply just brain material," she said.
Symptoms, which range from weakness and numbness to acute paralysis primarily in the legs, were initially discovered late last year and state health departments and the CDC launched an investigation soon after.
Government officials have not issued a recall on any of the pork products in question.
"This does not appear to be a food safety issue. It appears to be an occupational safety issue," McQuiston said.
(Reporting by Karl Plume; Editing by Christian Wiessner)
