Inflammatory Peripheral Neuropathies Prevalent in Poultry and Swine Farmers

Linda’s comment:  I have a friend who drives truck from the east coast to the west coast and recently I got a telephone call from her.  She told me that she would NEVER EVER roll her eyes at me when I talk about “free range”, organic feed, and how the chickens are killed and processed.

They had to pick up a delivery of processed chickens, (they drive refrigerated trucks) and the rot and smell were more than she could take.  She said many of the chicken in the confined cages had no feathers on their wings.  She thought it was because the cages they were kept in were so small that they could not flap their wings.  They picked up their load then delivered it to a place that the smell of rot was so bad she puked.  She has sworn off any chicken or eggs that don’t come from free range and organic fed.  Of course I was doing a happy dance that two more people saw the light!!  In the following article it doesn’t surprise me how sick our farmers are from managing chickens and pigs in such nasty conditions.  What has this world come to??
 
Another thought is how many pesticides and herbicides, plus other toxic poisons are our farmers being exposed to daily.  This is just as bad as the exposure to filthy farming of poultry and swine!
 
This is all the more reason why we must focus on lifelong daily detoxing to help remove these unwanted toxins and pathogens that we are exposed to.   If any of you have ever done any type of detox program you can relate to the toxic smells that come from our bowels and urine.  Don’t think that smell will leave you anytime soon, especially if you are focusing on heavy metals.  Don’t delay begin your detox today.  It is worth it.  It is most important for Lymies to focus on reducing your total body burden of toxins and pathogens.  The critters we are carrying in our bodies LOVE heavy metals, then you add gluten, GMO foods, sugar, caffeine,fast foods, alcohol and you have a party celebration feeding these bugs.  
 
Food-borne infection with Campylobacter jejuni, a common pathogen associated with poultry and swine exposure, is considered a major risk factor for peripheral neuropathies, including Guillain-Barré syndrome, said Meghan F. Davis, DVM, MPH, a PhD student from the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.

Campylobacteriosis, the disease produced by bacteria of the genus Campylobacter, affects more than 2.4 million people each year, close to 1% of the population of the United States. Guillain-Barré syndrome is the leading cause of acute peripheral neuropathy worldwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3000 to 6000 people in the United States develop Guillain-Barré syndrome each year.

“These are diseases [that farm workers] may develop as a result of their contact with farm birds and animals and the pathogens they carry,” Dr. Davis said in an interview with Medscape Public Health & Prevention. The bacteria are usually found in poultry but have also been isolated in swine, putting farm workers at increased risk of becoming carriers and potentially developing neurologic disease.

Among swine farmers and workers, the risk for numbness was 18% and 23% higher, respectively, than among control subjects. The risk for weakness was 22% and 28% higher, respectively, than among control subjects (P < .05).

Among poultry farmers and workers, the risk for numbness was significantly higher than among control subjects (27% vs 25%; P < .05). No increase in self-reported speech or vision problems was observed, note the investigators.

“Our findings strongly suggest that [farmers and farm workers] are going to be at higher risk,” she cautioned.

“The public health significance is that we need to focus on farm worker safety, potentially using more protective gear and educational programs, and doing more surveillance for diseases that they might develop as a result of their contact with farm animals and birds,” said Dr. Davis.

A total of 52,395 farmers from North Carolina and Iowa were recruited from the Agricultural Health Study between 1993 and 1997. A complete set of data for key symptoms and exposures was available for 20,599 participants. Of these, 15,932 farmers and workers were exposed to swine and poultry.

Swine farmers (n = 7079), swine confinement workers (n = 5930), poultry farmers (n = 784), and poultry workers (n = 713) were evaluated for possible exposure to C jejuni and compared with farmers who reported no occupational animal exposure.

Symptoms relevant to inflammatory peripheral neuropathies, such as numbness, weakness, blurred vision, and night blindness, were examined for the purpose of this retrospective analysis.

Exposure to birds and pigs was used as a surrogate for Campylobacter exposure, explained the investigators, who sought to determine whether exposure increased the prevalence of neurologic symptoms in this cohort.

“What we are going to do as a follow-up is to look more closely at this association, using biomarkers to assess whether the association is very specific to C jejuni and Guillain-Barré syndrome,” Dr. Davis said. They are planning a prospective study of “either established farm workers (or processing plant workers) or [workers] new to these work occupations, and [intend to] follow them over time to see if they have a higher risk for the development of this particular disease.”

“A very well-run study,” said Lee Hurt, MPH, an epidemiologist with the Center for Maternal and Child Health, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in Baltimore. Dr. Hurt expressed her interest in “the effects of farm work on public health” in an interview with Medscape Public Health & Prevention.

Controlling pathogens like C jejuni at the farm level might help reduce risks for occupational exposure and address concerns regarding food-borne disease, conclude the investigators.

The work was supported in part by grants from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Davis and Ms. Hurt have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

American Public Health Association (APHA) 137th Annual Meeting: Abstract 213221. Presented November 8, 2009.