Many of you recall the strange stories I was telling on January 1st of
this year about my wife's family business being spying. The date is
significant.

In particular, I told you that her uncle was a half-Jewish Blackshirt
who claimed, almost certainly truthfully, to know Sir Oswald Mosley,
the Duke of Windsor and Hitler himself.

The kinder of you probably thought I had flipped due to illness and
the Politburo hoped it would let them off the hook as a sign of
insanity in the prime witness on corruption in Defra.

Nobody could see any connection to agriculture or pig disease.

You were all wrong. It is just something else that the government
don't want you to know.

I started to make the story public for a number of reasons, not least
anxiety that the actions of a brave man who served his country well
and faithfully should be recorded.

It can't have been much fun being a half-Jewish Blackshirt,
interesting but not fun.

Pat's Note: Nothing really new here, except that there in an
increasing awareness that Continental practice is superior to British.

"The failure to invest in proper isolation facilities was wrong; too
many people have suffered and perished as a result," he said.

Health spokesman Norman Lamb said two successive governments had
failed to ensure recommendations from their own experts were followed.

He criticised the current prime minister for introducing
"headline-grabbing gimmicks with little scientific value", such as the
recent "one off" deep-clean of all hospitals, and a new short-sleeves
uniform policy, instead of ensuring that hospitals were detecting and
isolating infected patients.

If there is a reservoir of infection in pigs, then this is the reason
things are running out of control.

The dates, here and abroad, tally exactly.

Epidemics of the pig disease variously called PMWS - Circovirus etc
followed by MRSA and C.Diff epidemics in humans after an interval in
the same areas.

Pat's Note: Campaigning journalism at it's best.

Sorry about the typos in the previous despatch about Hamilton,
Ontario.

You can see how the UK is being watched for both good and bad
practice.

These guys, just like Minot, going to stumble on pigs and
uk.business.agriculture.

They are going to ask "Is there a connection?"

They can then wade though the archives of the newsgroup
uk.business.agriculture and make up their own minds.

Gordon Brown was at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
telling them how the internet changed everything:

"Mr Brown argued that the joining together of the information
revolution and the human urge to co-operate for justice made it
possible for the first time in history for the dream of a truly global
society to be realised.

He called for people everywhere to discover their shared values,
communicate with each other and join together with people in other
countries in a "single moral universe to bring about change".

Pat's Note: By one of those strange co-incidences, I have relatives in
Hamilton, Ontario. They used to come back to Gravesend, England every
year to tour the graveyards with suitably solemn expressions.

They were known, although not to their face, as the "Canadian Capers"
when they marshalled a relucatnt family to a gloomy Victorian drawing
room to account for the previous year's hatching, matching and
despatching.

My mother had that perculiarly Irish habit of knicknaming everyone,
often with less than flattering, although undeniably apt, precision.

She would have loved the Usenet, nobody would have escaped a waspish
tongue. Dhe would for example notice that the Canadians file C.Diff
under "Entertainment."

Anyway to business, the Politburo would say that the Hamilton local
paper was obsessed, I would say dedicated.

For the last week, they have produced article after article on C.Diff.

With this attention to detail, it is only a matter of time before they
stumble upon a possible link to their sick pigs. Perhaps they know
already of the link between sick pigs and MRSA?

Pat's Note: Although the presence of MRSA in Canadian pigs and pork
is well documented, it is very much under reported in Canada.

No connection has yet been made, that I know about, with the PMWS -
Circovirus epidemic that preceded MRSA in the area.

No connection has yet been made with pigs and C.Diff, let alone PMWS.

The situation bears some alarming similarities to that in the UK and
Ireland. This is not a co-incidence.

Some of the same personalites and organisations are involved as will
become apparent as the situation develops.

The Canadians have done well, but there are elements of cover-up nd
this is recognised in Canada.

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/370859

The story so far

The Hamilton Spectator

(May 17, 2008)

* An epidemic strain of C. difficile called NAP1 has caused outbreaks
in five Ontario communities since mid-2006.

Pat's Notes: Hummm....

This isn't the brightest remark given the appalling record of Scots
government vets working south of the border. The Scottish Executive
even had the nerve to investigate complaints of criminal activity in
faking blood tests and intimidating complainants to the Westminster
Select Committee in Norfolk, England.

I have the letterheads to prove it and available to bone fide
national newspapers by arrangement. That includes the main Scottish
newspapers.

They also deliberately shipped sick pigs condemned in Scotland, south
for slaughter in England. And yes I have all the details - and they
have been posted both to my website and to this newggroup -
uk.business.agriculture - available via google groups search.

027 is found in pigs.

"Health officials have been concerned that the "hyper-virulent" 027
strain could become more common in Scotland as it spreads from England
and a C.diff "reference laboratory" has been established in Scotland,
to help identify more virulent strains including 027, which might not
be picked up otherwise, and help understand the bug's characteristics.

Pat's Note: This is the strain that killed a lot of people in
Lowestoft earlier this year.

"Anne Eastaway, consultant microbiologist at Health Protection
Scotland, said: "These two clusters are unrelated and we are in
regular contact with the infection control teams at both NHS Grampian
and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. "

It might be wise to rephrase that. You seem to have a relationship
with both outbreaks. You don't keep pigs too, do you|?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7405837.stm

C diff clusters affect hospitals

Aberdeen Royal Infirmary is one of the hospitals affected
Nine patients at two Scottish hospitals have been affected by the
clostridium difficile (C diff) infection.

Four patients were affected at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and five at
Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow.

Health Protection Scotland said both clusters involved the virulent
027 strain of the infection but were unrelated to each other.

Two of the nine patients have now died. C diff was said to be a
contributory factor but not the main cause of death.

Pat's Note:

You will all remember Dave Roberts. He was given a hard time by the
Politburo.

He gave up posting here because of the organised abuse.

He posted this Wednesday, he was later to specialise in reporting MRSA
and as far as I know, this is the first time he has mentioned pigs.

The report is amusing even if the topic isn't.

Britain's mad bad vets are looking for someone to blame.

Stand -up Politburo, they are coming your way, and you are daft enough
to let them. You have sleep walked into this.

http://tahilla.typepad.com/mrsawatch/2008/05/eu-investigatin.html

EU investigating MRSA in pigs
Link: Animals: MRSA: 12 May 2008: Written answers
(TheyWorkForYou.com).

Jonathan R Shaw (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Marine, Landscape and
Rural Affairs) and Minister for the South East), Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Chatham & Aylesford, Labour) |...

Pat's Note:

The important statement here is: " the rate is still high compared to
other European countries"

The important question is: Why?

...and Greymaus should be the man asking it. He is real, he does exist
and he does have plenty to say for himself when it suits him.

You will also notice that two hospitals are excluded.

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gZS139ZjvEfuo3W8JJuqb1s8E0mA

Slight fall in superbug infections
1 hour ago

The number of patients infected with the potentially lethal hospital
superbug MRSA fell slightly last year, new figures revealed.

Health chiefs revealed there were 526 cases of the bloodstream
infection in 2007, compared to 572 the previous year. The HSE's Health
Protection Surveillance Centre said although there has been some
reduction in numbers, the rate is still high compared to other
European countries. Patient groups gave a guarded welcome to the drop,
but maintained that more work needs to be done.

Pat's Note: Even today BPEX are pushing Prince Charles' involvement
forward.

This is a Dutch site, but British owned. Same stable as FW if I recall
correctly.

At least the misleading and contraversial stats are not mentioned.

I'm very surprised that BPEX are still functioning and were not
immediately shut down by Defra.

Still, let's be honest. It is run by Defra by picking the farmers
pockets.

"Yes Minister" has nothing on this lot.

http://www.pigprogress.net/home/id1602-53202/bpex_focuses_on_pig_industry_troubles...

BPEX focuses on pig industry troubles// 16 May 2008

Seeing wheat costs double has prompted many British producers to get
out or at least scale down dramatically – as was shown by the cull sow
figures running at some 40%% above the level they were this time last
year.