Minn. Slaughterhouse Workers Fall Ill - Pig-Brain Removal Technique Is Suspected

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

On the slaughterhouse floor at Quality Pork Processors Inc. is an area known as the "head table," but not because it is the place of honor. It is where workers cut up pigs' heads and then shoot compressed air into the skulls until the brains come spilling out.

But now the grisly practice has come under suspicion from health authorities.

Over eight months from last December through July, 11 workers at the plant all of them employed at the head table developed numbness, tingling or other neurological symptoms, and some scientists suspect inhaled airborne brain matter may have somehow triggered the illnesses.

The use of compressed air to remove pig brains was suspended at Quality Pork earlier this week while authorities try to get to the bottom of the mystery.

"I'm still in shock, I guess," said 37-year-old Susan Kruse, who worked at the plant for 15 years until she got too weak to do her job last February. "But it was very surprising to hear that there was that many other people that have gotten this."



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Germs/wireStory?id=3969592

[quiet.american]

1. Okay - this might be the thing that makes me stick to vegetarianism. n/t

[roseBudd]

12. google Scrapie & sheep

http://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=JF6&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=scrapie+sheep&spell=1

[flashl]

34. Right on it

Scrapie is a transmissible degenerative disease of the
nervous system of sheep characterized by a long
incubation period and a protracted, debilitating
degeneration of the central nervous system. Changes
produced in the brain are microscopic. There is no
inflammatory response and no immunity produced by
the disease.

---

Typical U.S. response DENIAL.

[XemaSab]

2. THAT is SO f***ing NASTY!!!!!!!

:puke:

[Ian David]

3. My money is on a Prion like Mad Cow. n/t

[Duer 157099]

5. Same here

Maybe there's a porcine version that produces MS-like symptoms.

[kestrel91316]

13. I don't think so. All the people have pretty much eventually recovered.

My money is on a novel virus, one of the MANY that exist that have no names yet and have not been studied.

The vets and the physicians and epidemiologists and pathologists are all a-tizzy over this. Some clever person will get to write a landmark scientific paper and advance his/her career if they figure this one out.

[Shallah Kali]

29. Ditto. Makes me glad I gave up pork years ago.

:puke: :puke: :puke:

[varkam]

44. AFAIK, the only way to get prions into your CNS is to ingest them.

In other words, breathing them in won't do you any harm. You have to eat them.

[DS1]

4. breathing in uncooked brain

yeah, does it every time.

:puke:

[Ian David]

8. I hear it's how the kids are getting high these days. First "Butt Hash," and now this? n/t

[DarkTirade]

6. But if they blow their brains out, what will they use to make headcheese?

[kestrel91316]

14. You bad.

[dantyrant]

7. Rec'd just for general weirdness and horror film title!

[Ian David]

9. Oh, laugh now... but what if this is the plague that kills all mankind?

[kestrel91316]

15. Nah. People recover from this, and don't spread it to other people.

It's an occupational exposure. They need to stop sandblasting the pig brains to smithereens, and the workers need respirators and eye protection.

[Ian David]

17. Damn nanny-state Liberal!

Next, you'll say construction workers should wear helmets!

[Fovea]

10. The hidden cost of factory food production

From farming in the large to these high production, low sanitation/safety standards, modern
meat production is complete disaster from start to finish.

[drexel dave]

11. the future is in chick peas

our meat economy is disgusting.

[Quantess]

16. Sure is!

I would eat meat more often if I weren't so horrified and disgusted at the meat industry.

[burf]

18. This story

has more to it than ABC is reporting. Seems that the first case of the disease came about in Dec 2006. Ten cases were reported between then and July 2007. Production had not been stopped or even slowed down until recently. I guess Big Ags money does the talking (or prevents talking).

The MPLS Star Tribune has a few articles on the matter.

http://www.startribune.com/nation/12103331.html Minnesota investigating neurological illnesses among workers at pork processing plant

http://www.startribune.com/business/12104131.html Rare illness sickens 11 at Austin pork plant

[RavensChick]

19. Ewwwwww!!!!

That is the most digusting thing I have ever seen. Thanks for posting this. Now I gotta change my menu for Christmas and New Years. First beef, then spinach, and now this?!?!? We're gonna be reduced to nuts and twigs afterwhile.

[Megahurtz]

20. OMG Gross!

[bitchkitty]

21. Jeezus, what a headline! n/t

[rug]

22. That is the only reason they use waterboarding instead.

[judaspriestess]

23. I'm loving my veggie burrito even more today

I despise with all my heart and soul how humans slaughter animals.

[ovidsen]

24. People EAT this stuff!!

This may not be news to some DUers, but it sure was news to me when, about 15 years ago, a co-worker at the suburban Washington, DC newsroom where I worked brought in an unopened can of Pork Brains in Milk Gravy. He found it at a supermarket near where he lived in West Virginia. (Yes, he commuted from there to Arlington, Virginia. Don't ask.)

This disgusting sounding product was packaged and sold for human consumption, but the can sat, unopened, at this fellow employee's work station for years, until one day (on a dare) somebody opened it. The stuff looked like bits of pink pencil erasers mixed in this unappetizing, white-gray sauce. Just revolting. We placed the can at the newsroom coffee station.

Nobody said it better than our boss at the time, Ron Nessen. He used to be a correspondent for NBC television before resigning in 1974 to become President Gerald Ford's press secretary. He now writes occasionally for the Washington Post and other publications, but I digress.

It was his routine to stroll through the newsroom when he got to work about 8:30 every weekday morning and chat with us worker bees as he strolled to the coffee station for a cup. A nice guy. But that morning he completely lost it. As he was pouring his coffee, his eyes caught sight of the opened can of pork brains in milk gravy and he yelled, "What the f**k is THAT??"

Needless to say, the can and its contents were quickly disposed of.

All we could think of that morning, before and after Ron's outburst was, "... and people actually eat this crap??"

Apparently, they do. As one of the big Chicago meatpackers (I forget if it was Swift or Armour) said at the turn of the last century about the hog butchering business, "We use everything but the squeal".

I hope and pray that the people apparently sickened preparing this revolting product fully recover from whatever has stricken them.

[MetaTrope]

31. You can still get beef brain burritos at many Mexican restaurants

[ovidsen]

39. I'll pass...

I used to try just about any food served to me, both here and overseas. My attitude was, "If it's good enough for the locals, I'll at least give it a try". I suppose I was risking "Montezuma's Revenge", but thanks (I guess) to a combination of luck and a good immune system, I never got more than a couple of stomach aches.

But after reading this story, and the ones about how imported "delicacies" (especially meat and seafood products, like farmed shrimp from Asia that are literally grown in ponds fouled with human waste) are prepared, I'm getting pickier every day about what I consume. No more steak tartar or raw oyster bar feasts for me, thanks. I miss 'em, but not that much.

[City Lights]

43. I didn't know people ate pigs brains until I read the article.

Quality Pork has not said what it does with the pork brains. Sold fresh and in cans, pork brains are fried and eaten in sandwiches or gravy in some parts of the country.

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[truthisfreedom]

25. Ok, that's it. No more fried pork brains in THIS house. I'm putting my foot down.

No more than once a week from now on.



:sarcasm:

[KamaAina]

26. This is where Spam comes from

I saw "Austin, Minn." and "pork": uh-oh. Remember, Hawai'i eats more Spam per capita than any other state. But not "Hormel"... oops, Quality Pork Processors does the slaughtering for Hormel, and is even located on "Hormel Century Blvd." or something.

Hoo boy. A tainted Spam scandal might be the one thing that would get the masses out here in the streets!

edit: spelling

[Sabriel]

27. Reminds me of the X-Files episode in the chicken processing plant

And it wasn't "chicken," as it turned out. It only tasted like chicken.

[Generator]

28. First thing that came to my mind

Karl Rove.

[tomg]

32. Well, it certainly explains

why 29% still support Bush: They "shoot compressed air into the skulls until the brains come spilling out."

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NorthernSpy]

33. workers getting hurt = "justice"

:wtf:

[pokercat999]

37. Animals getting slaughtered for profit? WTF?

[superduperfarleft]

38. And it's the workers' fault?

I seriously doubt the people who work in slaughterhouses for substandard wages and in incredibly unsafe working conditions enjoy their work.

I'm a vegan, by the way, and yet I find the lack of concern for ALL creatures, human and non-human, who are victimized by the meat industry in this country disgusting. Read up on some of the labor struggles at Tyson or Smithfield. Nobody wins when it comes to the meat industry, whether it is workers, consumers, or animals.

[brentspeak]

40. So it's ok for the workers to get a terrible, rare disease????

[Richardo]

42. It's a recent phenomenon. Been going on since approximately the Bronze Age

[superduperfarleft]

36. Well that's kind of a messed-up attitude. n/t

[Richardo]

41. Sounds like you've had one too many pork-brain sandwiches...

:eyes:

[pipoman]

35. This (and worse stories) is why

we only eat wild game I take myself and beef, pork, and chickens we or one of our neighbors produce. These big packers would package and sell roadkill if they could slip it by the USDA. Just go to a large livestock auction sometime and watch what the Tyson buyer buys and what he/she pays for it.

[NorthernSpy]

45. heck, most roadkill would probably be more wholesome...

... than the usual factory-farmed, antibiotic-drenched, synthetic-hormone-doped abominations you find in the supermarket.

The antibiotic misuse issue alone is sufficient reason for me to steer clear of that stuff.

[pipoman]

47. agreed

It is getting better with availability of "source verified" steroid free meats. The problem is that a lot of people aren't willing to pay the price for them. A steer implanted with an ear chip may make 1200 lbs in the same time and same feed as a steer without steroids makes 850 lbs. Unless people are willing to pay the difference in price to get cleaner beef the grower ends up eating the additional cost. We don't chip our beef for our own consumption and I haven't found the market which will consistently pay the additional to get steroid free beef. This phenomenon (steroids) came about by big business getting involved in livestock production and spending bigger money to develop ways to put more meat on the livestock in a shorter time. Family farmers would have never started doing this if it wasn't forced on them to compete with corporate farming.

Chickens..look up "cornish cross", it is a hybrid chicken (developed by the corporate poultry industry) that when combined with ridiculously high protein feed will take a chicken from the egg to 7 pounds in less than 60 days!! That there jus' ain't natr'l..

[flashl]

46. Offal made popular by Fear Factor

Brains, Intestines, Pizzle - It’s what’s for dinner

Offal, the edible entrails and internal organs of animals, are widely regarded in American society as the Fear Factor cuts of meat. For the past few years though, chefs have been integrating offal into their menus, exposing squeamish Americans to what was historically a poor man’s meal. Cooking it at home is the next step; cuts of offal are sold at ethnic markets, and surprisingly, a large selection is carried at Wal-Mart. Butchers will also be able to get it, though it typically has to be ordered, and is often shipped frozen

---

IIRC, there was a pub in Boston, MA that bragged about its 'brains 'n egg sandwich'.

[Heywood J]

48. "Gee, humans get sick with kuru and die from eating brains,

cows get BSE and die from eating brains, deer and sheep get scrapie and die from eating brains. That's a problem. I'll think about that over lunch - pass the pig brains in gravy, will you?"