Neurological illness strikes NEBRASKA pork plant worker

07.mar.08
Meatingplace.com
Tom Johnston
http://www.meatingplace.com/MembersOnly/webNews/details.aspx?item=19996

A former worker at a Hormel Foods pork plant in Fremont, Neb., has the same neurological illness that hit meatpackers in Minnesota and Indiana.Dr. Joanne Schaefer, chief medical officer for the state of Nebraska, told Meatingplace.com one unidentified meatpacker has been confirmed to have contracted a condition officials are calling progressive inflammatory neuropathy, or PIN.

She said the man worked in a part of the processing plant that uses a high-pressure air system to remove pig brains, as did the workers in Minnesota and Indiana. (See a Illnesses at Ind. and Minn. pork plants may be linked, feds say on Meatingplace.com, Jan. 17, 2008.)

"The plant has stopped the process in question," Schaefer said. "We have interviewed folks and anyone potentially exposed to that process and have one confirmed case."

Schaefer said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will follow up with more interviews next week. Meantime, she emphasized that the illness is an occupational hazard, not a public health issue. "The food chain is safe, and general public shouldn't have any worries," she said. "It's an exposure issue, it's not a contagious disease."