A fascinating editorial on The Pig Site brings together a whole range of issues, that seem to be separate and are probably meant to be seen as separate, but which actually are very closely linked.
Without porcine circovirus in 1999, pig farming would not have PMWS and without PMWS the pigs would not have numerous co-infections that required massive quantities of antibiotics to get the pigs to slaughter.
Without massive quantities of antibiotics we would not have so much antibiotic resistance and its spread from pigs to people.
The mention of Foot and Mouth is interesting: without circovirus, we may well not have had Classical Swine Fever and then Foot and Mouth in 2000-2001. They all came into the same species in the same area at the same time, one after the other.
Co-incidence? Maybe, but then what was all the test faking, intimidation and obvious fabrications all about?
And without the people that messed that up, we may never have had BSE (Mad Cow) and vCJD either.
When the British veterinary civil service runs out of control, events run out of control too. This really is the worst scandal of the 21st century.
But at least the issues are now being discussed for the first time.
The full Pig Site editorial is here
Weekly Overview: Significant Advance Made in Disease Control
02 April 2013ANALYSIS - Scientists in the UK have developed a new synthetic vaccine against Foot and Mouth Disease, which is being hailed as the start of a new era in vaccine development. It has been established that MRSA can be transferred from animals to humans and that, during epidemic periods, such as 2008, PMWS could cost the UK pig industry alone £88 million per year. A new report puts part of the blame for the rise in antibiotic resistance on the livestock sector...
