Bird Flu Is Back

By James Tourgout

ANOTHER dead bird has been confirmed with bird flu near Abbotsbury Swannery.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) today
announced that a Canada goose collected on February 25 one kilometre from
the swannery tested positive for the lethal H5N1 virus.

The remains of the bird were found less than a kilometre from where the
previous positive cases were collected.

It is the 11th bird to be found with the virus. Defra has imposed new
restrictions for the next 31 days.

Has Pat actually managed to close down this group? :-)

If so it took a little longer than his claimed ten minutes.

Pat's Note: Ipswich Hospital is right in the centre of pig country - and
always in trouble.

Regulars here will remember "let's treat animals at weekends" farce (and the
insistance from the Politburo that this was regular NHS practice!). It is in
the archives, for those that want to see the Politburo at its finest.

Last month Ipswich claimed to have an MRSA free month only to discover that
they had a case of CA-MRSA. The patient had to correct them.

Their management is obviously not in control and panicking too.

If they find out that Defra having been hiding up MRSA in pigs on their
doorstep, they will pull out all the stops to save their jobs. Wouldn't you?

Defra has lost control of the pig health situation. It is out of their hands
and it is no good looking to them to save anyones skins, home, businesses or
reputation.

The senior ranks of the NHS will eventually speak out. What have they got to
lose? They are regular readers of the writer.

Don't look to the Politburo. The remnants of this rabble are trying to save
themselves by questioning the mental health of the whistle-blower. They are
going to have a very rough time when that gets investigated. Needless to
say, that allegation is yet another deliberate fabrication.

I have no problem with military secrecy, properly used under the "D" notice
system.

I have no problem with Prince Harry serving in Afghanistan. He comes out of
it well.

I do have problems with how the secrecy was arranged. It was on a typical
"you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours basis," and it didn't work.

One reason this type of arrangement does not work is that those excluded,
feel excluded and not bound by its terms. A "D" notice does at least carry
the force of law, everyone is on the same terms.

Probably nothing would have worked in today's instant communication world,
but the "old pals" act breaks down the fastest and in unpredictable ways. It
is becoming increasingly clear that even Harry's juniors were writing home
to Mum with the news.

Secrecy has not caught up with the reality of changed communications.

Defra are in serious trouble. Secrecy obsessed, they collude with their
stakeholders and some tame journalists to keep information from the public
eye using lobbyists to help

It won't work. No chance. We are talking of a human health epidemic over
years, not a minor mistake.

Pat's Note: This lady is not always the most popular in Britain and it is
nice to see her get justified praise in the Belfast Telegraph.

Gildernew and her counterpart in the republic have blown the Defra myth that
they are always controlled from Brussels. In Defra's case they even voted
for this trade to be allowed.

The EU will do nothing but accept what was obviously a sensible decision
taken in an emergency. The reality is that they will probably review the
original bad decision voted for by Britain and protested against by
Gildernew.

She was right, Defra was wrong, as usual.

I see Scotland are reviewing their Bluetongue policy. I was surprised to see
that they too have a substantial live trade to Ireland too and that the
Bluetongue infected beasts were routed from Holland via Scotland.

What's going on? Why is there so much money to be made shipping huge numbers
of live cattle to Ireland?

Judging by the reaction our resident lobbyists know and are anxious not to
tell us.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/opinion/article3477201.ece

Viewpoint: Job well done, minister

Pat's Note: A juxtaposition that caused me to chuckle and note the perils of
not taking Dutch science seriously. The WWW changes everything.

I seemed to know about the probiotics problem from Dutch research before
some of the experts in the NHS and acted to remove anything remotely similar
from my diet. I put a warning here a while back, when as usual my health was
being discussed, probably to spin the completely false allegation that I was
mentally ill. Tut. The lengths lobbyists in a panic will go to.

And the Bluetongue article reminds us that our medical people do read about
animals disease. They will get to the link between pigs and MRSA eventually.
There are a lot of medics too. Far too many for Defra's spinning wheel to
handle.

Defra are going to get a public spanking from a sore handed NHS of massive
proportions. Sit back and enjoy.

We are far too interested in spinning and lobbying in Britain. You have to
get down to raw facts and take them on board. To do anything else makes you
a hostage to fortune.

http://www.onmedica.com/BlogView.aspx?blogid=c816ff24-dc8c-4dfc-a40e-a55399bd4674&postid...

Probiotics lethal in pancreatitis?

Pat's Note: At least a lively debate is now under way in the US, which is
more than you can say for secretive bullying corrupt Britain.

Now let's get down to the nitty gritty - the headline is misleading - not
too surprising given the source.

The content can be summed up as "we don't know."

The Dutch, Belgian, Canadians and the rest say they do know and that at
least some MRSA is directly from food animals to pig and pork workers. It
seems to be backed by solid science from respectable scientific
institutions.

Britain does not want to know, because it has too much to hide. PMWS in 1999
for starters.

When the truth leaks out, as it will, this government are in terrible
trouble, as are some of their sleazy stakeholders.

It is a shame that the Opposition seem so reluctant to tackle them on the
issue.

http://www.feedstuffs.com/ME2/Segments/NewsHeadlines/Print.asp?Module=News&id=97...

CDC tells Congress MRSA not from food animals

(2/28/2008)

Pat's Note: So Britain (and Ireland) can suspend live imports. That is
another load of nonsense exposed.

Britain wanted to bring animals in from Bluetongue infected areas and voted
for it despite protests. Why?

30,000 beasts were imported in six weeks. Why?

Where were the animals going? Why was their reported route from Holland to
N.Ireland illogical?

The stench is unmistakeable.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7269770.stm

Livestock import suspension move

Northern Ireland remains officially bluetongue free

The Stormont executive has approved a week-long suspension of the import of
breeding animals into Northern Ireland from bluetongue affected areas.

Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew said the move was designed to keep
"our bluetongue disease free status intact".

The disease has been detected in imported cattle on a County Antrim farm.

But it is yet to be detected elsewhere so Northern Ireland remains
officially bluetongue free.

Stick bluetongue in google news alerts and you get a daily stream of reports
that just get worse.
This is just one of a kind, which shows us that once its here its going to
be dealt with badly, the worse ones are of stock being imported from
infected areas which seems to be unrestricted. sorry but WHY ?
Its lunacy ! Why are we doing nothing what so ever about prevention? Other
countries in the EU have import restrictions.

http://www.farmersguardian.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=16684
DEFRA has admitted it culled the wrong animal after bluetongue was found in
an imported cow on a farm near Middlesbrough, in December.
The mistake resulted in the infected animal remaining on the farm, in the
village of Great Ayton, until mid-January, which, had it not been the midge
free season, could have had serious consequences for local farmers.

--

regards
Jill Bowis

Pat's Note: A common factor of the many British animal epidemics has been
extreme secrecy, usually unnecessary, unless you consider covering up
government blunders allowable.

You would get more information in Zimbabwe.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0228/bluetongue.html

Imported cattle exposed to bluetongue

The Department of Agriculture has said that a consignment of 24 imported
cattle had shown signs that they had been exposed to the Bluetongue virus in
the past.

However, a department spokesman said tests have shown that the animals are
now free of the virus and had developed a natural immunity. Accordingly, he
said, they are not a threat to animal health.

The spokesman would not say where the cattle involved are located.

The Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan again appealed to farmers and
dealers not to import animals from infected countries.

A case of the virus was recently identified in an imported heifer in the
Northern Ireland.