{"id":353241,"date":"2026-03-23T03:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/353241\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T03:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:42:08","slug":"leman-occupational-exposure-among-swine-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/353241\/","title":{"rendered":"Leman: Occupational exposure among swine workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swine farm workers reported respiratory issues and skin conditions<\/p>\n

\"calendar 23 March 2026<\/p>\n

\"clock
\n 2 minute read<\/p>\n

[Excerpts of a presentation by Gerardo R. Diaz and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, USA, during the 2025 Leman Swine Conference]<\/p>\n

Understanding health outcomes in swine workers requires a multifactorial characterization of their exposures both at home and on the farm. As part of a swine worker microbiome study, a 20-minutes phone survey was conducted to gather information on demographics, health status, and occupational and non-occupational exposures among a sample of swine workers in the Midwest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Forty-nine workers from four farms in Minnesota, two in Iowa and one in South Dakota were enrolled based on the following eligibility criteria: Employment on the farm for 3 months or longer; age between 18 and 60 years old; and no history of incarceration, hospitalization, or use of antibiotics, immunizations or immunosuppressants in the past 3 months.<\/p>\n

Among the 49 respondents, 84% (31\/49) were Spanish speakers, 65% (32\/49) were male and the average age was 35.5 years (range: 22 \u2013 59). Additionally, 63% (31\/49) had a college degree and 6% (3\/49) held a graduate degree.<\/p>\n

The three most common self-reported respiratory conditions among workers were allergies or sinus problems (12%, 6\/49), cough or sore throat (12%, 6\/49), and infection of eye, ear, nose or throat (10%, 5\/49). In addition, the three most common self-reported skin conditions were eczema (6%, 3\/49), skin rashes (6%, 3\/49), and skin allergies to latex or nitrile gloves (6%, 3\/49). Workers also reported food or drug allergies: lactose intolerance (6%, 3\/49), allergy to penicillin (6%, 3\/49), and allergy to metamizole (2%, 1\/49).<\/p>\n

In the context of non-occupational exposures, the average swine worker household consisted of 2 adults (range: 1 \u2013 6) and 1 child (range: 0 \u2013 6), 45% (22\/49) lived with another person who worked with animals, and 43% (21\/49) had daily contact with other animals, mainly dog and cat pets. Also, 16% (8\/49) were smokers (averaging 46 cigarettes per week) and 13% (6\/49) were taking medication for a chronic disease.<\/p>\n

The average lifetime occupational exposure to swine was 9 years (range: 3 months \u2013 35 years). On their current jobs, workers physically handled an average of 605 pigs over 6 hours per day. The three most frequent job tasks on the farm were: performing euthanasia (94%, 46\/49), housekeeping tasks in non-pig areas (93%, 45\/49), and examining, diagnosing or treating swine (90%, 44\/49). The three less common tasks were: working with piglets 3 days old or younger (61%, 30\/49), obtaining bodily samples from swine (55%, 27\/49), and performing administrative\/office work (39%,19\/49).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regarding the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), 77% (37\/49) always use disposable gloves, 22% (11\/49) always wear either safety glasses or goggles, and 10% (5\/49) always use a face mask of some kind. In addition, 100% (49\/49) adhered to the showering-in and -out protocol and, on average, washed their hands 6 times per day while on the farm. This study summarizes a broad set of exposures, highlighting the need to consider additional factors when assessing health outcomes in swine farm workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swine farm workers reported respiratory issues and skin conditions 23 March 2026 2 minute read [Excerpts of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[163,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-353241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}