DELPHI - Health officials in two states and the Center for Disease Control continue to put pieces of a puzzle together that will reveal the cause of a strange neurological illness that has affected a number of pork processing plant workers in two states including Indiana. The illness, progressive inflammatory neuropathy or PIN, first came to light at the Quality Pork Processors plant about 100 miles south of Minneapolis, Minn. last fall. Workers involved with or working near a brain harvesting area where the technique of removing the brain by spraying compressed air into the skull was used began complaining of sensations of burning, numbness and weakness in the arms and legs. Seriousness of the ailment ranged from uncomfortable to disabling, and when health officials from a local clinic and the plant looked further they found a dozen workers affected by it. According to a Washington Post story by David Brown in early February, one Hispanic worker came down with fever, malaise and rapidly progressing weakness. By the time he was admitted to a hospital he could not walk. Prior to that, the worker had been assigned to "blowing brains" on one of the shifts. Similar to other later patients, he had evidence in his bloodstream and spinal fluid of inflammation. He was given high-dose intravenous steroids and in a few months regained most of his function. But the cause remained mysterious. He ultimately returned to work and the same job. Within two months, he redeveloped less dramatic symptoms seen in others including widespread pain, and a sensation of weakness that is out of proportion to the actual weakness detected on a physical exam. Working hypothesis The CDC was called in as well as Mayo Clinic and the Minnesota Department of Health. The working hypothesis at this point is that the harvesting technique - "blowing brains" - produces aerosols of brain matter. If the material is inhaled the immune system reacts by producing antibodies that attack pig brain compounds, but seem to also attack the body's own nerve tissue because it is so similar. "If this theory is correct," wrote Brown, "the ailment resembles Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune condition that sometimes follows fairly benign infections."
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