E.Coli 0157 - Scotland the worst in the world

The title speaks for itself.

We have long suspected that the animal health and zoonosis situation was much worse in Scotland, especially Eastern Scotland, and we have said as much many times and attracted organised stalking and harassment for the last 13 years.

We were certainly right in the case of E.Coli 0157.

Prof. Sir Hugh Pennington tells us Britain has the highest rate of incidents in the world, with Scotland the worst in Britain and North Eastern Scotland being the worst in Scotland.

Sir Hugh is Britain's top expert on E.coli outbreaks

This is our kids' lives at stake: not least the children of Scotland who are most at risk.

Obviously, this now is a very serious political and criminal crisis over veterinary corruption centred on Edinburgh.

This is the scandal of the century.

The full Food Manufacture report is here, Be sure to read it in full. Especially the penultimate paragraph.

Further information can be reached by using the search facility on this site or using Google Groups to search uk.business.agriculture

Our readers can never ever have any idea of how this feels for a an elderly couple living out their retirement in the country. 

A 13 year nightmare is over.

Britain's corrupt veterinary establishment are on the run.

The world wide impact is going to be massive, this is indeed the scandal of the century. Nothing will ever be the same again, in Britain, Ireland, Canada or the USA

Later, it will need calm sensitive hands. Now, it needs the tea chucked in the harbour.

Britain's corrupt veterinary establishment believed they were above the law. Alas, they are not.

They will not tell us the truth because they are frightened, as indeed we all would be, if we had been involved in the crime of the century.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/mystery_remains_over_location_of_turkey_mrsa_outbreak_1_3058982

Mystery remains over location of turkey MRSA outbreak

Turkey producers remain in the dark about the location of a low risk MRSA outbreak in East Anglia

Michael Pollitt, Agricultural Editor Friday, November 29, 2013 
6:50 PM

Specialist Norfolk poultry auctioneer Fabian Eagle says he has not been given any details of the country’s first case of low-risk MRSA in turkeys.

stakeholder group, said: “We’ve been kept totally in the dark. The AHVLA (Animal Health Veterinary Laboratory Agency) are keeping everything close to their chest,” said Mr Eagle. “I understand that the birds are safe to continue in the food chain,” added Mr Eagle, of the Poultry Farm, North Pickenham, near Swaffham.

The first case, which was found in a single turkey on an East Anglian farm, followed routine testing for another poultry disease. When this case of low-risk Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) was identified, further tests were carried out and two-thirds of the flock was also found to be infected. It was not found in geese on the same farm.

Officials from AHVLA declined to identify the holding and stressed that there would be more surveillance, full cleansing and disinfection once there were no longer any birds on the premises...

The twilight, loony land of our state veterinary service

It is good to see that some farmers now feel able to report the antics of Britain's State Veterinary Service.

Most can't.

They know perfectly well they would be harassed, either directly or by the use of Maff-Defra cronies and front organisations.

We feel for them. They have a vulnerable business to protect and, whatever the law, have little option but to 'put up and shut up.'

We were lucky, not commercial farmers and no longer in business, we promptly appealed to both Mr Speaker and to OLAF for witness protection and made it very clear to OLAF, the serious fraud squad of the EU, that we intended to continue to campaign for state veterinary reform in the UK.

This is, of course, the scandal of the century.

Full 'Western Morning News' article here.

The twilight, loony land of our state veterinary service

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Western Morning News

Once more, we're embroiled in gathering over 300 head of cattle from sprawling miles of moorland, to shove them through the race for yet another TB test...

MRSA Christmas turkey superbug came from Britain

For the first time the source of a zoonotic disease outbreak is admitted to be Britain, and a serious world class scandal begins to surface.

Where can it have come from? How did turkeys become infected with MRSA st398? This strain is also called MRSA cc398 or pig MRSA.

It can't be pigs, Britain's government veterinarians insist that British pigs, almost alone in the world, do not have MRSA st398, despite having done virtually no tests.

What tests they did do, consisted of a few dust samples from the corners of sheds, years back, forced on them by the EU.

You can find the details by searching this blog (use the box above) or using Google Groups to search the newsgroup uk.business.agriculture for the origins of this scandal more than 13 years ago.

Read the full Daily Mirror report here

MRSA Christmas turkey superbug came from Britain

28 Nov 2013 01:39

Experts investigating how poultry at a farm in East Anglia were infected have now ruled out any foreign source.

The MRSA superbug discovered in turkeys being sold for Christmas originated in the UK, it was revealed last night.

Experts investigating how poultry at a farm in East Anglia were infected have now ruled out any foreign source.

The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency has traced it to a location in the UK, but could not confirm where.

It will raise fears that more farms may have been sent infected
turkeys and sold them on.

The AHVLA said: "We are working to trace where the infection came from and where it has gone to."...

MRSA turkeys: Why is it secret?

Not our headline but the Daily Mail.

It is the right question and one we can answer easily.

The government are prepared to sacrifice the poultry industry, and risk public health, to hide up corruption and incompetence in the management of the state veterinary service over the last fifteen years or more.

Not naming the farm, endangers the sales from all other poultry farms: indeed the whole retail operation at the crucial time of year.

Doubtless they will compensate any victims using taxpayers' money in secret with gagging clauses.

Full Daily Mail report here

MRSA turkeys: Why is it secret? Silence on outbreak is condemned by food industry experts 

Food Standards Agency and Defra refuse to name East Anglia farm involved

Have also decided to allow turkeys to be sold as normal for Christmas

Food industry experts have said it is vital consumers are given full facts

By SEAN POULTER
PUBLISHED: 00:12, 28 November 2013 | UPDATED: 00:39, 28 November 2013

Officials are under fire for keeping details of an outbreak of the MRSA bug in Christmas turkeys secret from consumers.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Defra, the food and farming ministry, have refused to identify the East Anglia farm involved...

'Pig' MRSA st398 found at English Turkey Farm

Turkeys were found with MRSA st398 in East Anglia a couple of days before the American Thanksgiving and in the run up to Christmas everywhere.

For the record, this is the official British government release on MRSA st398 in turkeys. As you can see, they have put the authority of five government organisations behind it, four with veterinarians from the same government pool.

They have thrown everything behind minimising the story. They must be really worried. 

As usual, they have refused to identify the farm. The birds are already in the food chain.

Britain must be the only country with 'pig' MRSA in everything but pigs!

Britain's government veterinarians do not look very hard for anything that might cast doubt on their competence or integrity.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/livestock-associated-mrsa-found-at-a-farm-in-east-anglia

Press release

Livestock-Associated MRSA found at a farm in East Anglia

Organisations:

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs+ 4 others

Page history:

Published 26 November 2013

Policy:

Protecting animal health and preventing disease, including in trade

Topics:

Food and farming and Wildlife and animal welfare

Minister:

George Eustice MP

The risk to the public from eating meat that is thoroughly cooked is very low. The risk of catching MRSA from an animal is also very low...

After 70 Years, Antibiotics Still Work?

One can almost admire the veterinary determination to continue using huge quantities of antibiotics in meat production.

Determined, and doubtless profitable, but not wise.

Superbugs will mean that we will all pay the price of their refusal to face facts, backed by the hitherto overwhelming influence of the drug-dealing lobby. However, reform is quite inevitable in the end.

In their efforts, in America, they also confirm an important point: the much touted distinction, between growth promotion and health protection, plus treatment, is largely a sham. The bugs don't know why they are being swamped with antibiotics, only that they are.

The ASAS make the case for those of us, in state veterinary-censored Britain, insisting on veterinary reform and tight external regulation of both private and public veterinarians.

"Some say..." makes light of the seniority of the human medical experts complaining in Britain and elsewhere. The apocalyptic warnings of the England's Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies can hardly be discounted.

As always read the whole of the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) board of directors statement, not just the quotes given below.

The full text is here

After 70 Years, Antibiotics Still Work!

Nov. 22, 2013 Source: American Society of Animal Science

Following is an official statement from the American Society of Animal Science (ASAS) board of directors authored by animal scientist R.L. Preston.

Yes, we can be thankful that antibiotics are still effective in humans and animals since they were discovered over 80 years ago. The availability of antibiotics to treat infectious diseases is a medical miracle that has radically improved the health and well-being of both humans and animals, including pets...

...Some say we are closer than most of us realize to the time when bacterial infections can no longer be treated with antibiotics because of antibiotic resistance ("superbugs")...

...Denmark banned the use of antibiotics in food animals in 1997, except by veterinary prescription. In the five years following the ban, the total use of antibiotics in food- producing animals decreased by only 30%, because there was a 41% increase in prescription use. By 2012, veterinary prescription use in pigs increased about 115% and total antibiotic use in pigs was 80% of what it was before the ban...

During the five-year period, there was increased mortality in baby pigs and antibiotic resistance in isolates from ill humans increased from 18% to 46%. This is a real-time result following a ban of health (growth) promoting antibiotics in food-producing animals...

HEV in highly exposed persons such as... veterinarians.

We always did say privately that we were British veterinarian's best friend!

Under respected, defamed, abused, stalked, harassed, threatened, ill-treated, but we were always with that burning desire to keep Britain's vetocracy alive, healthy and out of gaol long enough to apologise for their crimes against humanity and to begin the process of veterinary reform.

Regular readers will spot the reference to HEV and realise the alarming implications.

At the last count there were 23 references to the dangers of Hepatitis E on this blog, not least to veterinarians.

The full abstract is here As always read the whole.


Vet Microbiol. 2013 Oct 26. pii: S0378-1135(13)00491-4. doi:
10.1016/j.vetmic.2013.10.018. [Epub ahead of print]

Detection and characterization of potentially zoonotic viruses in faeces of pigs at slaughter in Germany.

Machnowska P, Ellerbroek L, Johne R.
Source
Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, Department of Biological Safety, 12277 Berlin, Germany.

Abstract

Pigs can harbour a variety of viruses in their gastrointestinal tract. Some of them are closely related to human viruses and are therefore suspected to have a zoonotic potential. Only little is known about the presence of those viruses in pigs at slaughter...

 ...However, the GARV and HEV strains were more closely related to human strains.

The results indicate that enteric viruses, some of them with zoonotic potential, are present in pig faeces at slaughter. Application of good hygiene practice is necessary to minimize the risk of introducing these viruses into the food and to prevent virus transmission to highly exposed persons such as slaughterers and veterinarians.

Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Hepatitis E and PRRSV in pig found

Yet again we see evidence of dangerous co-infections in pigs. The combination of Hepatitis E and Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRSV) is very worrying.

PRRSV is common in pigs worldwide, often associated with Porcine Circovirus, and we know that Hepatitis E in association with pig farmers and indeed pork itself can cause very serious human illness.

Seemingly endless investigations by the human health authorities in England continue.

Researchers will find many references here to Hepatitis E and pigs - 22 at the last count. Please use the search box above for details.

The provisional abstract can be found on the Virology Journal site here

One case of swine hepatitis E virus and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus Co-infection in weaned pigs

Jingjing Mao, Yue Zhao, Ruiping She, Peng Xiao, Jijing Tian and Jian Chen

·          

Author Affiliations

For all author emails, please log on.

Virology Journal 2013, 10:341  doi:10.1186/1743-422X-10-341

Published: 19 November 2013

Abstract (provisional)

Background

Using various methods, we analyzed the cause of death among weaned pigs from a pig farm in Hebei Province, China. All 300 piglets (100% fatality) were identified as moribund, with death occurring within 1 month from the onset of clinical signs.

Results

A single case exhibited obvious hemorrhagic necrotic changes with massive lymphocytic infiltration in multiple organs, in particular the liver, lungs and intestines. Dysplasia and lymphocyte deterioration were common in lymphatic organs. No visible bacterial colonies from liver and spleen were observed in nutrient, MacConkey, and blood agar plates. Using polymerase chain reaction techniques for this case, we attempted to detect a number of epidemic swine viruses in spleen and liver, including PRRSV, CSF, HEV, and PCV2. We found that this sample was positive for the presence of HEV and PRRSV.

Conclusions

We have detected HEV and PRRSV co-infection in one piglet. Severe pathologic changes were observed. The high mortality of weaned pigs which showed the similar clinical syptom was possibly a result of HEV and PRRSV co-infection, which has rarely been reported previously. We speculated that co-infection with PRRSV and HEV might lead to more serious problems.

Norovirus - the real reason the fabulous British NHS is collapsing

It was inevitable that one of the main reasons why Britain's prized NHS was on the point of collapse would eventually be exposed.

Every winter Britain's  hospitals fill with Norovirus cases, close wards, deal with extreme squalor and keep the dying from their relatives. They also wind up their PR machine to the point of idiocy.

We suspected the real source of Norovirus some years ago and the following was published in the United States to some acclaim and even an unlikely award:

http://www.cruiselawnews.com/2010/06/articles/norovirus/cruise-ship-norovirus-something-in-the-water/

We worked hard privately to explain to the cruise industry that their problems lay in the local water they innocently shipped on board at departure ports.

The record is all there to be found for those that need evidence.

Much later, we found that the municipal and local water suppliers did not check for Norovirus when supplying water to you, your family, your hospital or indeed cruise liners.

So, cruise liners are the ideal laboratory.

So are earthquakes.

So is the jug of water alongside your hospital sick bed.

It was inevitable that the unexpected would eventually hit the button to accidentally reveal the real reason why Britain's once fabulous NHS  is on the point of collapse.

A New Zealand Master's student Sonali Weerasekara and a journalist on the New Zealand Herald, Matthew Backhouse, pressed that button and they are due sincere congratulations. They will be famous whether they need it or not.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11156332

French Veterinarians Strike over Antibiotic Restriction

The British farming media usually report French agricultural strikes, blockades and civil disorder with admiration and approval.

Not this one though. This is the first report we have seen.

So, the first strike by veterinarians over government regulating antibiotic use in animals has already taken place.

The veterinarians certainly don't like having antibiotics regulated regardless of the damage to human health worldwide.

British government veterinarians don't show their hand so openly: they just have a nice line in encouraging their front organisations to bully, harass and attempt to intimidate witnesses to Parliament and OLAF, the serious fraud squad of the EU.

Full Pig333 report here, as always, read in full.

France: action by the French veterinarians

12-Nov-2013

Monday November 4, 2013/ Ministère de l'Agriculture, de l'Agroalimentaire et de la Forêt/ France.
Wednesday November 6, 2013/ SNVEL/ France.

Last Monday there was a meeting in France between the Minister of Social Affairs and Health, Ms. Marisol Touraine, the Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Stéphane Le Foll, and representatives of the National Council of Veterinarians and veterinarians' unions, during which the grounds of a commitment by the veterinarians for reducing the use of critical antibiotics were established...

...In spite of the agreement reached by the ministers regarding the withdrawal of the distinction measure, the French veterinarians kept the call for a strike scheduled for Wednesday November 6th. The strike, which is the first one in 40 years and that gathered an important number of veterinarians on the streets of Paris...

Denmark - Another new pig disease - NNPDS

More porcine diseases are emerging, and spreading, to torment the world's pigs and their farmers and endanger public health.

Some pose direct health risks to humans. Others indirectly endanger public health by their treatment with antibiotics creating antibiotic resistant disease spreading to human populations and endangering hospitals.

Obviously, something is very seriously wrong with modern pig farming systems.

But, it may not just be the farming systems, and may also be a result of the massive increase in live movements plus semen and embryos, domestically and internationally, over recent years.

Pig people travel more too: workers in Britain, Canada the USA, and elsewhere, are often immigrants. Veterinarians work across national borders too. Disease moves quickly around the world and the interaction between different diseases and strains can increase the problems.

This new pig disease, discovered in Denmark, and named New Neonatal Diarrhoeic Syndrome - NNPDS, is unresponsive to antibiotics.

The highlights of the abstract (Pig333) are given below, the full text can be reached here.

ABSTRACTS

Microbiological, pathological and histological findings in four Danish pig herds affected by a new neonatal diarrhoea syndrome

06-Nov-2013 (yesterday)

Hanne Kongsted, Beata Jonach, Svend Haugegaard, Øystein Angen, Sven E Jorsal, Branko Kokotovic, Lars E Larsen, Tim K Jensen and Jens P Nielsen. Microbiological, pathological and histological findings in four Danish pig herds affected by a new neonatal diarrhoea syndrome. BMC Veterinary Research 2013, 9:206 doi:10.1186/1746-6148-9-206.

Background

Neonatal diarrhoea is a frequent clinical condition in commercial swine herds, previously regarded to be uncomplicated to treat. However, since 2008 it seems that a new neonatal diarrhoeic syndrome unresponsive to antibiotics and common management practices has emerged....

...Conclusions

The results of the study supported the hypothesis that a new neonatal porcine diarrhoea was present in the investigated herds, since no known pathogen(s) or management factors could explain the diarrhoeal outbreaks. Based on the findings in the four herds the following case-definition of NNPDS was suggested: Non-haemorrhagic diarrhoea during the first week of life, without detection of known infectious pathogens, characterized by milk-filled stomachs and flaccid intestines at necropsy.

Superbugs in Livestock - America Mobilises

The benefits of a genuinely free press!

It has always been clear that the superbug crisis in Britain's livestock was not going to be exposed by the veterinary establishment or the trade media. Both are too directly or indirectly dependant on drug sales to do more than hinder or oppose exposure.

Britain's corrupt farming ministry, MAFF-Defra, was going to do nothing but sit on their hands, stitch together misleading statistics, issue self-congratulatory media releases and arrange or encourage the harassment of critics, not least witnesses to Parliament at Westminster.

It was going to be the mainstream media driven by expert journalists, outside Britain and almost certainly in the USA who would blow the worst scandal of the 21st century for Britain.

The American pig industry is now reeling from the constant undermining of pig health by Porcine Circovirus and the increasing devastation from PEDv.

Maryn McKenna, author of 'Superbug', correctly deduces that the time has arrived for reform with the essential prerequisite of a well briefed main media now hot on the trail.

As always, read the whole article.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/11/antibiotic-opinion-turning/

Antibiotic Overuse on Farms: Is the Opinion Tide Turning?

BY MARYN MCKENNA 11.04.135:20 PM

It’s been a busy few weeks here at Casa Superbug — including some conference appearances, more on them later — so the first thing I’d like to do is point out some things that appeared while I was offline.
Notably: In editorials, three newspapers recently challenged the way antibiotics are used on farms and asked why we can’t do better.


Most important, because it has the biggest circulation: USA TODAY, which on Oct. 27 asked:

Want to ensure that miracle drugs can no longer perform miracles?

Then do what some physicians and industrial livestock farmers have
done for years: Overprescribe antibiotics to people, and use them
cavalierly in farm animals to promote growth or prevent infections
before they even occur.

The piece, ascribed to USA TODAY’s editorial board, is skeptical of
the FDA’s plan for voluntary control of growth-promoter antibiotics in
livestock raising:...

...A few weeks earlier, the San Jose Mercury News was even more blunt. in a piece headlined “Stop pumping farm animals full of antibiotics” and also written by its editorial board, that paper said:

When historians look back on our time, one question they’re likely to
ask is this: How could people have been so stupid as to cripple the
lifesaving power of antibiotics by letting farmers pump cows, pigs and
chickens full of them?

It’s a clear case of putting profits before people’s lives, and if the
FDA and Congress won’t act, California should show them how...

...The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif. made similar points with a similar call for action:

The nation’s food supply should not add to public health risks. Yet
the overuse of antibiotics on farms contributes to the growing
weakness of these drugs and the rise of treatment-resistant bacteria.
Congress needs to limit agriculture’s use of antibiotics in healthy
animals, as a public safeguard…


...It’s not uncommon for the op-ed pages of newspapers to feature calls for action. Op-eds, unlike editorials, are written by interested third parties. But when a newspaper speaks from the editorial page, it is speaking with the voice of the paper’s brand and the power of its circulation. Papers usually reserve that firepower for issues of real public importance. That three newspapers did that in the course of a few weeks suggests to me that public opinion may be turning against ag overuse of antibiotics for real.

Hepatitis E in humans, pigs and pork.

There have been more papers published recently about Hepatitis E in humans, pigs and both.

We started talking publicly about the human risks from Hepatitis E in pigs more than six years ago.

That puts British government veterinarians on the hotplate yet again. We know there have been a number of cases in Cornish pig farmers.

You can find twenty-seven articles on this blog about Hepatitis E, going back more than three years (use the search function on the page) and many on the newsgroup uk.business.agriculture (use Google Groups Search here).

PubMed abstract here


Vet Res. 2013 Oct 28;44(1):102. [Epub ahead of print]

Direct contact and environmental contaminations are responsible for HEV transmission in pigs.

Andraud M, Dumarest M, Cariolet R, Aylaj B, Barnaud E, Eono F, Pavio N, Rose N.

Abstract

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) can cause enterically-transmitted hepatitis in humans. The zoonotic nature of Hepatitis E infections has been established in industrialized areas and domestic pigs are considered as the main reservoir. The dynamics of transmission in pig herds therefore needs to be understood to reduce the prevalence of viremic pigs at slaughter and prevent contaminated pig products from entering the food chain.

An experimental trial was carried out to study the main characteristics of HEV transmission between orally inoculated pigs and naive animals. A mathematical model was used to investigate three transmission routes, namely direct contact between pigs and two environmental components to represent within-and between-group oro-fecal transmission. A large inter-individual variability was observed in response to infection with an average latent period lasting 6.9 days (5.8; 7.9) in inoculated animals and an average infectious period of 9.7 days (8.2; 11.2). Our results show that direct transmission alone, with a partial reproduction number of 1.41
(0.21; 3.02), can be considered as a factor of persistence of infection within a population. However, the quantity of virus present in the environment was found to play an essential role in the transmission process strongly influencing the probability of infection with a within pen transmission rate estimated to 2 . 10- 6g ge- 1d-1(1 . 10- 7; 7 . 10- 6). Between-pen environmental transmission occurred to a lesser extent (transmission rate: 7 . 10- 8g ge- 1d- 1(5 . 10- 9; 3 . 10- 7) but could further generate a within-group process.

The combination of these transmission routes could explain the persistence and high prevalence of HEV in pig populations.