I don't think one can dismiss the human health problems associated with pigs easily and, I'm very glad to see the more litigious instincts of the American people come to the fore.

It is, alas, the only way anyone is likely to get to the truth. BIG PIG worldwide is backed by big money and spends a fortune on unscrupulous PR.

Pig herds everywhere are sick and have been for some years. They are a risk to human health.

I have spent almost decade on the MRSA, C.Diff disasters, day after day: there at the beginning, with pigs and in pig country when the horror story started.

We decided on a self-sufficient lifestyle and walked into a nightmare.

There is little doubt that MRSA and probably C.Diff in pigs has been leaking into the hospitals for some years.

There was a nasty mutation to a porcine circovirus in Britain in 1999 which caused an epidemic that required huge quantities of antibiotics to handle the consequences.

MRSA in pigs was the result, usually the ST398 strain.

The Dutch picked up the problem about four years ago and commendably made everything they knew public.

Both circovirus and MRSA epidemics have now travelled the world along with accompanying cover-ups. It is quite a nasty situation - now coming to light in the USA.

MRSA st398, mutated circovirus and various other unpleasant zoonotic diseases have now reached American pig farms.

The people exposing the scandal in the US are to be commended.

I have extensive records available to anyone researching the link and can often answer general questions quickly and accurately.
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Regards
Pat Gardiner
Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!

Mr. Trunnell has our sympathies for the loss of his wife. Pregnancy is a underlying condition that leads to more severe flu, that is why pregnant women are supposed to get vaccinated.

Mr. Rosenthal is suing Smithfield because Texas made it harder to sue doctors and limits malpractice awards. This lawyer is just another ambulance chasing sleaze ball. He is simply trying to make a buck off this family's misery by going after the deep pockets. Flu has been around for thousands of years, exactly how is this the basis for a lawsuit?

I used to think like that, but not anymore. Following giving evidence to the British House of Commons about pig health and faking of test results, I had to apply to Mr Speaker Martin, the one who is BBC headline news today, for witness protection (and when he refused it go to the Fraud Squad of the EU.) So good news from Westminster for me today! He is the first speaker to be thrown out for more than 300 years.

You move a bit quicker in the States - be grateful

Smithfield did not help themselves, when this first blew up they denied owning any pig or pig farms in Mexico. Technically true - it was a subsidiary - but not very straight-forward.

Since they have been issuing what should be media releases as letters to their employees - a bizarre way of handling such matters. Presumably it is some form of legal protection, which is exactly why BIG PIG should not have all the best tunes and biggest guns or indeed the best lawyers.

You are not perfect in the USA, but you have not just had the experience of finding that virtually all your MPs have been caught with their fingers in the till. We have yet to find out about payola, but it will be there for sure and BIG PIG will be right in there with the rest of the multinationals.

Be glad that you do have lawyers willing and able to take on big business, if only to get them to explain themselves properly.

We now have a British veterinarian going to Ireland (The Republic) and standing up claiming he knows the rates of MRSA in British pigs and that there is no danger to human health because it is a different strain. He presumably dare not say that in Britain.

I have been trying to force the information out of the British government for month after month, but we have no idea whether this leak is right and no lawyers to force them into making a statement.

So the first hungry American lawyer to reach this once green and pleasant land, with a glint in his eye, and a writ in his bag, can claim a very large gin and tonic.

Regards
Pat Gardiner