If the victim never traveled outside the USA then he picked up the disease from an animal he processed at work.
This begs the questions How many other meat packing plant workers could be potential victims of this insideous disease and who all ate the affected meat that he was infected by?

Many more cases are in our future.

The meat processing industry does not want us to know how bad it is or could get.

He probably died from vCJD or the variant form of CJD commonly referred to as “Mad Cow Disease.” It is a common understanding that many jobs have inherent work risks. Those people who worked for many years in tanneries have higher rates of ALS (Lou Gerhrig’s Disease). Those who work with chemicals such as Benzene (i.e.) paint factories; have a higher incidence of Leukemia and Lymphomas compared to the regular population. Should it also surprise people that recently a new neurological condition affecting those people who slaughter pigs has recently been in the news! Also, hunters are nine times higher than the general population in contacting a prion disease! The recent story of the ASPCA going undercover in detecting illegal practices, i.e. sending “downer” cattle (most likely to carry Mad Cow disease) into the slaughter house rather than separating them for further testing by the FDA Inspector! Rest assured, if this has happened at this slaughter house, there are more slaughterhouses down the line that are not abiding by the laws/regulations that are set by the FDA! I keep thinking of that massive meat recall in the State of California where this slaughterhouse was exposed by the ASPCA. There was over 140 million tons of ground beef that were successfully recalled. Approximately twenty five percent of that beef was NOT recalled because it was probably already consumed. A great deal of that meat that could not be recalled, which was probably eaten, has gone to the school lunch programs! Only time can tell as to whether any of that meat was contaminated or not! But the thought of profit (a few downer cattle) over the safety of the American public, especially children makes me believe that the role of our US Government, ie. FDA is very, very lax if not completely ineffectual!

Yes it is true it sometimes takes years to detect the effects of food related illness .The other side to this type of story is the other meat contamination battles where the USDA just covers-up the issue and refuses to address the facts presented to them when it is in the best interest of another state agency.Keep reading and visit my site and draw your own conclusion.
I applaud your very fine story and comments and appeal to you to visit my blog site http://bullstone-larrym.blogspot.com/ and see the evidence of rat fecal contamination in meats produced by an instrument of the State of Florida department of Corrections. I have been battling with the USDA to issue a recall on the millions of pounds of meat the State of Florida produced under contract for my company. This meat was distributed nation wide to schools, supermarkets and institutions. When we discovered that this Florida State division was storing food supplies and edible ingredients in a rat infested warehouse we began our quest to get this information to the public and get accountability placed on those who allowed this to happen. When you read the information on my blog you will see the validity of both our stories .I support your efforts and request your support of mine. Regards Larry Stone

Denny Crane also suffers from this.

I personally recall two cases in one nursing home from approximately 20 years ago. Neither of the two individuals had ever been out of the country. We should all suspect we will see many more cases as the years go by. Neither the government nor science has caught up with reality at this point.

My mother died from sporatic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, March 25th 1991 at age 61. We lived in Phoenix, AZ. She was diagnosed through a brain biopsy 3 months before she died. Why this happened to her will probably never be known in my lifetime. I’ve read in medical books that 85% of people who are diagnosed with CJD get the “sporatic” type. We have no family history of this disease. Seven months passed from the time she started getting sick until she died. Halfway through her illness she stopped talking, never opened her eyes, and seemed to be in a state not as deep as a coma.Once when I sat by her bedside, I whispered to her that I loved her, and that she had been a good mother to me. A tear fell from one eye, so she must have known I was there even though she did not speak. I am feeling sad and depressed tonight thinking about what she had to go through. She was a good mother and a gentle person. Since her death I have never stopped missing her. I was unable to look at photos of my mom for 3 years after her death. It just hurt to much. I couldnt talk about it for those three years without breaking down.
It was the worst experience of my life.

More and more we are finding out how dangerous the things we bring into our lives really are. Asbestos was once common, as was lead paint and leaded gas. We’ve poured on the sugar, smoked up a storm, we breed in spite of known genetic faults in our families and we walk around with cell phones stuck in our ears. It appears that the phones will come to haunt us in a decade or so as well. There’s something to be said for leading a simple life. -Rod-

WELL THATS GREAT I JUST WONDER IF THE LAST BEEF RECALL WERE THEY WERE PRODDING DOWN CATTLE DID THOSE CATTLE HAVE MAD COW DISEASE OR NOT. SEEN THEY PUT SOMEONE IN PRISON FOR IT BUT NEVER TOLD IF THOSE COWS WERE AFFECTED WITH IT.