I suppose everyone not in my bin is on holiday?

The combine has now left the farm! Only 3 miles up the road though so I
may have to be unavailable harvest time. Plough and best grain trailer
to follow nearer August.

New grass leys up and doing well. No sign of slug damage yet. The Autumn
sown stuff is jumping along with the warm weather and a bit of nitrogen.

No Cuckoos yet and still only 4 Swallows. So far they seem to be
choosing nest sites in barns not due for demolition or total anti
arsonist enclosure.

Crushed concrete surfacing to a bridleway has brought lots of previously
unseen mums with prams or possibly the population explosion has started.

Lots of queen wasps bizziling about!

Now that the cropping plan has stabilised, I may look again at the entry
level scheme. Presumably, if you don't claim points for a hedge, they
can't criticise you for annual trimming?

regards

Pat's Note: Confirmation of the German situation in a UK based pig health
publication means that Defra now have absolutely no option but to publish
British figures.

The slight differences in wording here that "tests are now being conducted
in Britain" suggests it is a very recent event even that it has been
prompted by the German findings. I'm not sure that is accurate.

There is obviously going to have to be immediate statements by Defra and the
Food Standards Agency, possibly the NHS too.

It will be very interesting to see what Defra have to say. I suggest that
they stick to the truth in plain English.

I will be pressing hard for a full scale police investigation and any
fudging of the issue will hardly help their position.

http://www.thepigsite.com/swinenews/17848/german-pigs-infected-with-mrsa

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

German Pigs Infected with MRSA

GERMANY - German health officials have made an announcement that the
country's farm pigs are infested with "hospital bacteria", otherwise known
as Methicilin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) bacteria.

Pat's Note: That seems to be Defra's vets thoroughly stuffed.

If this publication is right, and I think it is, Defra have been testing
British pigs for MRSA , possibly even for some years.

The source is considered reliable for British affairs. It has British vets
on the staff and is owned by the same publishers as Farmers' Weekly

Yet Defra's site is deliberately crafted to suggested that they did not feel
the need to test pigs.

"MRSA in livestock
MRSA has been isolated from dairy cows, pigs and chickens outside the UK and
an ongoing assessment of the international picture is being maintained.
There is no current evidence that food-producing animals form a reservoir of
infection in the UK and the organism has not been detected in farmed
livestock in the UK. Defra has initiated a study undertaken by the VLA to
test Staphylococcus aureus isolates obtained from bovine clinical
submissions for MRSA. This project commenced in Autumn 2006 and, to date,
425 samples have been tested, with no MRSA identified.

National Indoor Air Quality Institute
The national IAQ institute is your one-stop source for iaq/mold
inspection & remediation information, technologies, training and
solutions, free home analysis, articles & contractor section.
http://www.ogogosina.cn/Air-Quality.htm

The appalling news from Germany makes the British refusal to test its pigs
for MRSA unsustainable.

I believe that they have tested the pigs already and have been deliberately
holding back bad results.

This has now risen to the status of international criminal activity.

The government has no option but to suspend the senior government vets
immediately and put the police into Defra.

They should not be given time to destroy the evidence of criminal activity,
even though that may implicate politicians.

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/05/12/hlbf0512.htm

C. diff among hospitalized patients becomes more common
The number of patients in hospital with a diagnosis of Clostridium difficile
increased dramatically from 2001 to 2005, according to a report issued by
the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in April.

The authors culled data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, finding that
the number of hospitalized patients with this infection increased by 102%%
from 2001 to 2005 but only 74%% from 1993 to 2001. The infection was
associated with a tripling of the length of a hospital stay and raising the
death rate 4.5 times.

It's unclear whether the infections were acquired in or out of the hospital
setting, but the authors note that this is an important public health
problem.