CORNELL CONFIRMS THE FIRST NORTH AMERICAN CASE OF PIG MENINGITIS IN HUMANS

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CORNELL CONFIRMS THE FIRST NORTH AMERICAN CASE OF PIG MENINGITIS IN HUMANS
20 February 2007 - Cornell University

A seemingly healthy 59-year-old farmer checked into Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, N.Y., complaining of sudden fever and confusion. His pulse was racing, he breathed rapidly, and he had meningitis, an inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.

The hospital's preliminary tests revealed the presence of Streptococcus suis, a prevalent bacteria in pigs that can lead to meningitis, making the farmer the first reported case of pig meningitis in a human in North America.

Ruth Zadoks, research associate and veterinarian at Quality Milk Production Services, an arm of the Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine, provided the veterinary insights and a DNA-level analysis of S. suis strains found in both the farmer and pigs from his farm.

With the farmer's bacterial cultures and the pig samples, Zadoks confirmed that the patient was indeed infected with S. suis, and she identified three other strains of swine strep among the 13 pig samples. Although none of the strains in the pigs matched the human strain, Zakoks noted that not all the pigs on the farm were still available when samples were finally collected in September that year.

"Even though we did not match the human strain with those of the pigs, the strain from the farmer matches superficially a strain found in both pigs and humans in Denmark and the Netherlands," said Zadoks. "Some strains are more likely to cause disease in humans."

While S. suis has occasionally jumped to humans in Europe over the last 20 years, people have regularly contracted the disease in Southeast Asia, especially China where a 2005 outbreak resulted in 204 human cases with 38 deaths, and some 600 pigs killed. Nearly all patients were farmers or butchers. In 2005, South America also documented its first case from Argentina.

"It could be that the disease is spreading," said Zadoks. "But also we may be just better at recognizing it."

Just as with the avian flu, all human cases of S. suis have originated with an animal infecting a human. Unlike the bird flu, however, public health officials have no expectations or fears that the pig bacteria will ever spread from one human to another.

Still, the infection is "certainly an occupational hazard for those in the pork industry," said Frank Welcome, a senior extension associate and veterinarian at QMPS who was first contacted by Bassett Hospital regarding the human S. suis case. Farmers can contract the disease from handling swine and pig feces. Butchers are also at risk. Washing hands and cooking pork thoroughly can minimize risk.

"This should heighten awareness of the possibility of this illness for people with the occupation of dealing with swine," said Kara Willenburg, M.D., of the Bassett Hospital and the lead author of the letter published in NEJM. "But it should not affect the lives of the general public."

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Today's Cornell reflects this heritage of egalitarian excellence. It is home to the nation's first colleges devoted to hotel administration, industrial and labor relations, and veterinary medicine. Both a private university and the land-grant institution of New York State, Cornell University is the most educationally diverse member of the Ivy League.

On the Ithaca campus alone nearly 20,000 students representing every state and 120 countries choose from among 4,000 courses in 11 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools. Many undergraduates participate in a wide range of interdisciplinary programs, play meaningful roles in original research, and study in Cornell programs in Washington, New York City, and the world over.

In his first inaugural address, at the Weill Cornell Medical College campus in Qatar in October 2004, Jeffrey Lehman, the first Cornell alumnus to become its president, articulated a vision projecting Cornell as "the transnational university of the future."

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