Well, we hit the jackpot this morning and in every way, personally and professionally (if that is how you might dignify our campaigning over animal health.)
It started out as giving an expert opinion on import procedures, and complaining to Parliament and the serious fraud squad of the EU, if you recall.
Since what the writer said did not agree with what Britain's corrupt government veterinarians were telling the world, he has been abused, harassed and stalked, and has been for the past 13 years, by paid lobbyists and their cronies.
On the personal side, the writer takes or has taken pretty well all of the drugs mentioned as possibly contaminated; heparin in the past, insulin and pancreatin several times a day, every day for years. Pancreatin is taken by anyone without a pancreas and for some very serious childhood ailments.
Fortunately, Mrs Pat tells me my insulin is non-porcine and we are neither surprised nor shocked about pancreatin. We have long expected this and a have a little store of articles and news comment going back years. It's Hobson's choice for the writer.
Hepatitis E has long attracted the greatest number of hits on this blog over the years, and porcine circovirus, well we all know about that.
Incidentally, Cornwall has had very sick pigs with circovirus since about 1999, and Hepatitis E has been under investigation for human transfer from pigs for the past years following abnormal levels of deaths in pig farmers, although this does not seem to be the cause in the case quoted.
As far as circovirus is concerned, we still stand behind the Gardiner Hypothesis:
"Mutated Circovirus in pigs, the consequences treated with heavy use of antibiotics, is followed by MRSA in pigs and then MRSA and C.Diff epidemics in humans."
The full letter, in advance of publication, is here
Volume 19, Number 4-April 2013
Letter
Hepatitis E Virus and Porcine-derived Heparin
To the Editor: Cases of sporadic, locally acquired hepatitis E have been increasingly identified in industrialized countries over the last few years (1). In this setting, hepatitis E is thought to be a zoonotic infection, with pigs as the primary host. ...
... Given that all samples analyzed were negative for all 3 viruses tested, it seems likely that the heparin manufacturing process is sufficient to remove viral contaminants. However, this may not necessarily be the case for other porcine-derived products, such as porcine insulin, factor VIII C, pancreatin, and poractant alfa. Further investigation is warranted to exclude these products as potential sources of HEV infection.
C. Crossan, L. Scobie, J. Godwin, J.G. Hunter, T. Hawkes, and H.R. Dalton
Author affiliations: Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland, UK (C. Crossan, L. Scobie, J. Godwin); Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, UK (J.G. Hunter, T. Hawkes, H.R. Dalton); University of Exeter Medical School, Truro (H.R. Dalton)
