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Saturday 24 July 2010

Circovirus - God Bless America!

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The writer is amazed and delighted to see this article from Iowa. He feels vindicated over a decade long campaign about circovirus in pigs and British veterinary corruption.

He agrees with almost everything said, with the exception that there is clear contradiction on the efficiency of vaccines. One can’t expect everything.

Just a few key quotes (and our comments in brackets.)

1. “virtually no hog farms in the world free of the virus, except two U.S. herds” (British herds have been riddled for the last decade. That’s a big secret in Britain except to the vets and the industry.)

2. “Co-infections are amazingly common” (That explains the constant infections that can and are treated by antibiotics. It explains the massive quantities of antibiotics used in British pigs and the links to antibiotic resistant diseases.)

3. “reduced immunity to other disease pathogens or co-infections.” (Attacks the immune system and explains the co-infections)

4. “close relationship between PCV2 and PRRS infections” (This confirms the link between circovirus and the equally devastating PRRS)

5. “Vaccinated pigs that don’t develop immunity are also at risk of developing the disease. For example, a 10% vaccination failure rate can result in up to a $2 loss for every pig in a group, Thacker calculates.” (This slightly ambiguous comment confirms the doubts about the efficiency of vaccines – although it seems contradicted elsewhere in this article)

6. “Pig-to-pig is probably the more common means of transmission.” (It has been obvious that live pig and possibly semen movements have been at the very least the main means of movement both worldwide and domestically and not only of circovirus. Domestic spread is largely via the infamous pyramid systems. Imaginary ilegally imported infected meat is still being pushed as the major source by those relying on the trading of live pigs worldwide and the pyramid systems of production.)

7. “Diagnosis is difficult.” That explains why live pig movement internationally should have been stopped a decade ago. There was no way any veterinarian could sign a health declaration other than recklessly and why the government veterinary services failed in their duty to step in and stop them.

All in all a brilliant article, long over due.

The writer feels his faith in the strength of American free speech was justified. Things are not as bad in America as they are in Britain, but America is rapidly moving ahead of Britain in coming out with honesty and integrity in grappling with the problem.

How different here for a one very sick Englishman, battered, bruised, abused, lied about and threatened with arson in his own home for speaking the truth and standing up to state sponsored and protected veterinary crime and corruption!

Now corrupt British vets will be facing the prospect of going behind bars. That day is brought closer by this brave article.

God Bless America!

http://nationalhogfarmer.com/health-diseases/circovirus-control-remains-critical-0715/

Circovirus Control Remains Critical
Jul 16, 2010 5:13 PM, By Joe Vansickle Senior Editor

Hit the url to read the words of the Prairies

Thursday 15 July 2010

Mice infected with Porcine Circovirus

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Porcine circovirus is confiemed as a zoonotic disease and can be spread to mice under laboratory conditions. Elsewhere there are suggestions that it does exist in humans, hopefully harmlessly.

A severe outbreak in pigs in Britain in 1998-9 (immediately before the 2000 CSF and FMD epidemics) was covered up. The failure to make PMWS (circovirus) a notifiable disease was publicly criticised later by the former President of the OIE.

When the existence of the disease in Britain became common knowledge, there were attempts to re-date the British epidemic to 2001, and therefore following rather than preceding the CSF and FMD epidemics. The Malaysians spotted the discrepancy.

The intervening decade has been carefully documented on the British newsgroup; uk.business.agriculture searchable on the internet using Google and other news reading services.

British pigs are still sick with circoviruses a decade later, and the disease has spread worldwide. It seems we have very good reason be extremely concerned.

Monday 12 July 2010

MRSA found in German cows, milk, famers and associated pigs.

The fact that MRSA has been found in milk on dairy farms associated with pigs is extremely worrying.

At least the Germans have admitted the problem, presumably with the intention of doing something sensible.

Britain's Government vets are probably plotting to blame the Germans or imaginary illegally infected imported milk, if they find anything when finally forced to do some testing.

http://www.vetsweb.com/news/mrsa-occurrence-in-southwest-german-dairy-herds-1275.html

MRSA - mastitis link in Southwest German dairy herds

12 Jul 2010

German researchers studied the occurrence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in three dairy herds in the southwest of Germany that had experienced individual cases of clinical and subclinical mastitis associated with MRSA.

The herds were identified by the detection of MRSA during routine resistance testing of mastitis pathogens. All quarters of all cows in the herds that were positive on California Mastitis Test were sampled for bacteriological analysis on two occasions. Bulk tank milk samples were also tested. Furthermore, nasal swabs were collected from people working on the farms and from cattle. Environmental samples were collected from associated pig holdings. Isolates were characterized using spa-typing and testing for antimicrobial resistance.

The results revealed a substantial spread of MRSA in the three dairy herds. In the first of the two investigations carried out on all cows in the three herds, milk samples of 5.1–16.7% of dairy cows were found positive for MRSA. The respective proportions in the second herd level investigation were 1.4–10.0%. Quarters harbouring MRSA had higher somatic cell counts than quarters that were negative on culture.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus were also detected in nasal swabs of staff (7/9), cows (7/15) and calves (4/7), bulk tank milk samples (3/3) and environmental samples from pig premises (4/5) on the farm. Herds B and C had no contact to herd A. However, in all three herds MRSA of spa-type t011 were detected in milk samples. Results show that MRSA of spa-type t011 is a problem in dairy farms that needs urgent attention.

Saturday 10 July 2010

MRSA st398 in pigs, people - and now dogs

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Published just over a week ago, this from Canada's top expert in zoonotic disease deserves much wider publicity beyond the secretive world of veterinarians, especially in Britain.

MRSA st398 is obviously now moving between pigs, people including a pig vet, and dogs.

Things get worse for Britain's government and pig vets by the minute. That's what you get for covering up and spreading pig disease dangerous to humans for a decade: exposure, investigation and disgrace.

Scott Weese is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathobiology at the University of Guelph, and Public Health and Zoonotic Disease microbiologist for the University's Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses.

http://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/


Livestock-associated MRSA in dogs

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Scott Weese

A study we just published in the journal Veterinary Record (Floras et al, 2010) described an MRSA outbreak in a dog breeding kennel. That's a little unusual in itself, but considering how MRSA is spreading amongst the dog population, it's not really astounding. What was unique about this outbreak was the strain that was involved, sequence type 398 (ST398).

ST398 MRSA is commonly referred to as livestock-associated MRSA, since this strain seems to have originated in pigs, and is commonly found in pigs and calves in some regions. It can also infect people, and high rates of carriage of this MRSA strain can be found in pig farmers, pig vets and other people with close contact with livestock. In some areas of Europe, this strain is a big problem, accounting for a large percentage of human infections. Interestingly, it seems to be a rare cause of illness in people in North America (at least at the moment).

Dogs seem to be innocent bystanders when it comes to MRSA. The vast majority of MRSA strains found in dogs are common human strains, indicating that, ultimately, MRSA in dogs originated in people. There are only two other reports of dogs with ST398, both from Europe. One was a dog with a skin infection. The other was a healthy dog (a carrier) who was owned by a pig vet.

This outbreak involved a larger number of dogs, with both healthy carriers and sick dogs. Overall, MRSA was isolated on one or more occasion from 23/42 (55%) of dogs in the kennel. In a couple litters, most puppies were identified as carriers, but fortunately most stayed healthy. MRSA did cause skin infection in a puppy and mastitis in a mother dog, and was also found in the respiratory tract of a puppy that died (although it may or may not have been the cause of death).

The source of the ST398 was not identified. One of the owners worked on a pig farm, but MRSA was not isolated from either owner. It's most likely that the owner did bring MRSA home from the farm, either as a transient carrier (in their nose) or as a contaminant on their skin. Regardless, once it got into the kennel, it was able to move between dogs, either from dog-dog contact or with the help of human hands. Fortunately, ST398 MRSA carriage by dogs seemed to be transient, consistent with what we know about carriage of other strains. MRSA is not really adapted for longterm survival in a dog, so they only carry it for short periods of time. That's a big advantage when it comes to trying to control this bug.

While we have to be careful and not overinterpret data from only a few studies, this report indicates that ST398 can cause disease in dogs and be present in apparently healthy dogs. It can also be spread widely in a breeding kennel situation. While a pig-link was not confirmed, it's reasonable to suspect that dogs with contact with pigs(and perhaps other livestock) might be at higher risk of developing ST398 infections, as is the case with people.

This is a perfect example of the one medicine concept, and why we need to think about infectious diseases in broad terms, not just focusing on specific populations. This situation involved a pig Staphylococcus aureus that somehow acquired methicillin-resistance, spread widely around the world (most likely in pigs, initially), spread to people, and then likely spread to other species like dogs.