Argentine president: Eat pork, spice your sex life

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Argentina's president thinks eating pig meat is really sexy. Many people in this beef-loving nation reacted with surprise Thursday after Cristina Fernandez promoted pork in a speech during which she not only said pork is better than Viagra, but suggested she's personally proven it.

"I didn't know that eating pork improved sexual activity," Fernandez said in a meeting with representatives of the swine industry late Wednesday. "It is much more gratifying to eat some grilled pork than to take Viagra."

She even joked that "it was all good" after she enjoyed some pork with her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner.

"I think they might be right," Fernandez said to a laughing audience.

The president's half-joking speech in which she announced subsidies for the pork industry won prominent play on television and radio stations, prompting discussions on whether Argentines should add more pork to their diet.

Argentines are among the world's biggest consumers of red meat, and most people here stubbornly reject the idea of replacing beef with chicken, pork or other meats. Despite Argentina lying along rich South Atlantic fisheries, seafood is rarely seen on dinner tables.

Fernandez approved subsidies to keep the price of pork low despite inflation, and her government has also recently subsidized red meat producers after beef supplies sharply declined in the South American country.

The head of the association of pork producers, Juan Luis Uccelli, supported Fernandez's speech by saying that Denmark and Japan have a much more "harmonious" sexual life then the Argentines because they eat a lot of pig meat.

"In Osaka, Japan, there is a village in which the people who reached 105 years old and ate a lot of pork had a lot of sexual activity," he told radio Mitre.

Others were skeptical.

"There is no study showing that pork meat significantly improves sexual activity," Amado Bechara, a specialist in sexual disfunction, told the Web site of the newspaper La Nacion.

Source

Vandals Strike at Malaysia Mosques With Boar Heads

Stoking Religious Tensions, 

Incident Is Latest in Battle Over 

Whether 'Allah' Translates; 

Looming Anwar Trial Fuels Fire

Reuters

Police outside a mosque in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday examine a boar's head, considered deeply insulting.

By JAMES HOOKWAY

Malaysia's simmering religious and racial conflicts could worsen after worshippers Wednesday found the severed heads of wild boars at two mosques, amid a dispute over whether Christians can use the term "Allah" as a translation for "God."

Muslims consider pigs unclean, and leaving boar heads at a mosque is a potentially inflammatory insult, mirroring an incident last year when Muslim activists flung a severed cow head on a proposed site for a Hindu temple near Kuala Lumpur.

Wednesday's incident is considered the most offensive case of sacrilege against a Muslim place of worship since a storm erupted over the use of the Arabic word "Allah." It threatens to further upset this resource-rich, racially diverse country and complicate Prime Minister Najib Razak's efforts to build a multiracial support base before national elections, which must be held by 2013.

Adding to tensions, the trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges—the second he has faced in little more than a decade—is scheduled to begin next week. Mr. Anwar leads a multiracial opposition alliance trying to replace Malaysia's government after 57 years in power. Prosecutors accuse him of sodomizing a young male aide in 2008—an illegal act in Malaysia. Mr. Anwar, 62 years old, says the story was fabricated to destroy him.

Malaysia's High Court ruled on Dec. 31 that the Malay-language pages of the Roman Catholic Church's weekly newspaper could use the term "Allah" as a translation for "God."

That decision—which the government is appealing—triggered protests among Muslims who say the Arabic word should be reserved solely for Islam. They say they worry that the Christian use of the term could inadvertently trick Muslims into converting. The newspaper said it was the most appropriate local translation.

Since the ruling, 11 churches have been attacked around Malaysia, and the administration office of one church in Kuala Lumpur was burned to the ground. A Sikh temple also has been attacked, as have two Muslim prayer rooms.

Khalid Abu Bakar, chief of police in Selangor state near Kuala Lumpur, where one of Wednesday's incidents occurred, said a group of men who went to Sri Sentosa Mosque to perform morning prayers at 5:30 a.m. found the two animal heads in plastic bags on the grounds. Their mouths were stuffed with bank notes. Authorities reported a similar incident nearby.

Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said the government would find the perpetrators. "We are dead serious about this," he told a news conference. "We will bring them to justice."

Mr. Khalid said police hadn't identified any suspects and were continuing their investigation. He urged people to remain calm, as did Zulkifli Mohamad, the top official at the Sri Sentosa mosque.

The attacks this month have rocked the fragile racial and religious balance in this predominantly Muslim country of 28 million people, where relations between Muslim ethnic-Malays, who make up 60% of the population, and Malaysia's ethnic-Chinese and Indian minorities are generally amicable.

Since taking office in April 2009, the prime minister, Mr. Najib, has set out to win over the support of Malaysia's ethnic minorities, but the High Court ruling has complicated his efforts. Political analysts say that to maintain the ruling National Front coalition's strength in Malaysia's Muslim-Malay heartland, his government needs to be seen visibly defending the Islamic faith from perceived threats.

That stance, however, unsettles many of Malaysia's non-Muslim minorities, who fear the country has adopted an increasingly politicized form of Islam in recent years.

Opposition leaders, including Mr. Ibrahim, a Muslim, have said there is no theological argument against non-Muslims using the word "Allah," and that the term is commonly used by minority Christian communities in Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East. Many Malay-speaking Christians in eastern Malaysia also use the term for "God."

Separately, the Associated Press reported that Malaysia has arrested 10 terror suspects under its Internal Security Act, including nine foreigners allegedly with ties to an international network of militants. Authorities declined to give the suspects' nationalities, their organization or their objectives. Over the past decade, Malaysian authorities have held more than 100 militant suspects, most of whom have been members of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network, which has its headquarters in neighboring Indonesia.

"This is a very serious threat to the security of our country," the AP quoted Mr. Hishamuddin as saying.

—Celine Fernandez contributed to this article.
Source

Singapore snorts over McDonald's toy pig blunder

SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - McDonald's apologized to Singapore Friday and brought a pig back to its toy menu, after a decision to leave the animal out of its Chinese zodiac collection upset many in the predominantly ethnic Chinese nation.

LIFESTYLE

McDonald's this month started selling cartoon character miniatures depicting the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac calendar, but the pig was replaced by love god Cupid as McDonald's said it did not want to offend Muslims.

But the move, just ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday and Valentine's Day in February, backfired as many Chinese customers complained in chatrooms and blogs that they would not have a chance to buy the animal sign of their birth year.

"We're sorry, and we're grateful," the fast food chain said in a half-page advertisement in the Straits Times newspaper, saying it never intended to offend anyone.

Multi-racial Singapore has successfully avoided racial tension since deadly riots in the 1960s, though the government sees race as the biggest potential fault line in society.

"I understand that we need to respect our Muslim citizens as Singapore is a multiracial and multicultural society," Pauline Koh, whose daughter was born in the Year of Pig, wrote to the Straits Times.

"However, in this case, the Pig is one of the Chinese zodiac signs -- part of Chinese culture and customs -- and it is just a soft toy, not food," she wrote. Around 75 percent of the nearly 5 million population in Singapore is ethnically Chinese and 15 percent is Malay or Indian Muslim. McDonald's and many other fastfood chains sell food that is halal, or acceptable to Muslims.

Pork and other pig products are not halal food.

(Reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan and Fabian Ng; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Source

FACTBOX-Flu triggers pig and pork import bans worldwide

May 4 (Reuters) - Twenty countries have banned imports of pigs, pork and other meat in response to the H1N1 flu strain that has infected both people and swine, according to the World Health Organisation.

Following is a list of the bans, as well as the measures taken by countries that have not blocked imports in response to the outbreak, which health and trade officials say is not food-borne and does not pose a danger to meat consumers:



RUSSIA

-- Pork banned from Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador.

-- All meat and meat products banned from Mexico and the U.S. states of California, Texas, and Kansas.

CHINA

-- Live pigs and pork products banned from Mexico and the U.S. states of California, Texas and Kansas.

SERBIA 

-- Pigs and pork banned from Mexico and the United States.

THAILAND

-- Live pigs banned from Mexico and the United States.

JORDAN 

-- All meat banned from countries with confirmed H1N1 cases.

PHILIPPINES

-- Pigs and pork products banned from Mexico and the United States.

UKRAINE

-- Pork banned from Mexico and the U.S. states of California, Texas and Kansas. 

INDONESIA

-- Pork banned. No details given, unclear if only from Mexico and the United States or from around the world.

LEBANON

-- Pigs and pork banned from affected countries. Measure orders destruction of cargo en route from affected countries, the closure of domestic pig farms, the prohibition of pig slaughter and the blood testing for all pigs.

AZERBAIJAN

-- Livestock products banned from North America.

BAHRAIN

-- Pork products banned from Mexico, the United States and any country with reported H1N1 cases.

CROATIA

-- Pork banned from North America, plus any country with confirmed cases.

ECUADOR

-- Pork banned from Mexico and the United States.

KAZAKHSTAN

-- Pork banned from Mexico and the United States.

MACEDONIA

-- Pork banned from North America and countries with confirmed cases.

MONTENEGRO 

-- Pork banned from North America and countries with confirmed cases.

SURINAM

-- Animals, raw pork and semen imports banned (no further details given)

SWITZERLAND

-- Pork from Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and United States

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

-- Pork banned for both import and sale (no details given)

BELARUS

-- Meat banned from seven countries (not specified)

-- Cattle, poultry and feed banned from Canada, Mexico, the United States, New Zealand, Spain, France, and Israel.

SOUTH KOREA

-- No ban imposed. Increased number of flu virus checks on pork products from Mexico and the United States.

EUROPEAN UNION

-- No ban imposed and no change to import policy, given "flu has nothing to do with food chain".

JAPAN

-- No ban imposed. Checks of live pig imports for infection. No checks on imported pork "as no risk when cooked".

KOSOVO

-- No ban imposed. Increased import monitoring (no details). (For related story, please see: [L4584168]) (For more Reuters swine flu coverage, please click here:here )

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

Source

Pork Safe To Eat, Pig Farmers Say

Monday, 27 April, 2009 - 20:13

Wellington, April 27 NZPA - Consumers should not be put off eating pork because swine flu is not spread through food, the pork industry said today.

Pork New Zealand said that though the H1N1 influenza A virus, called swine flu, may have originated in pigs, it was a human health risk because it was being transmitted from human to human.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had confirmed that it was safe to eat all pork products, the industry said in a statement.

"Swine influenza has not been shown to be transmissible to people through eating properly handled and prepared pork," the WHO said.

"Swine influenza virus is killed by cooking temperatures of 70degC."

Though New Zealand has never recorded a case of swine flu in farmed pigs, the pork industry said today it was reminding farmers to be vigilant around disinfecting and cleaning, visitor access to farms and to "ensure staff do not work with pigs if they have flu-like symptoms".

Any unusual pig health issues should be discussed with a veterinarian, a spokesman for Pork NZ said.

Symptoms of swine flu in pigs included sudden onset of fever, depression, coughing discharge from the nose or eyes, sneezing, breathing difficulties, eye redness or inflammation, and loss of appetite.

Source

Blue-ear pig disease now under control

Blue-ear pig disease has been brought under control thanks to the introduction of a series of tough measures to combat diseases in cattle and poultry on a nationwide scale, according to the Department of Animal Health, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

This disease broke out in Quang Nam province in February and spread quickly to 31 communes in such 4 districts of Dien Ban, Que Son, Thang Binh and Duy Xuyen, infecting 3,000 pigs. However, on April 11, the province announced that it had dealt with the outbreak successfully and had put it under control.

Meanwhile, Bac Giang province has been taken off the national list of provinces infected with foot-and-mouth disease but Kon Tum and Son La provinces have still reported cases of the disease in the last 21 days.

Now bird flu is only existent in Dien Bien province.

Source

Pig escapes from truck on highway, but is shot

March 30, 2009

A pig on its way to a slaughterhouse managed to break free on the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Northeast Extension on Sunday, but paid a painful and deadly price for its brief moments of freedom.

State police at Pocono say a trooper shot and killed the pig on the side of the road, near mile marker 80 in Penn Forrest Township, because the pig was injured and bleeding. Troopers said the pig could have also created havoc on the highway by running back into traffic.

The pig was one of many in a truck headed to a slaughterhouse. One or more of the pigs managed to push a gate away from the truck's body and the one that escaped slipped out and onto the road shortly after 11 a.m. Police said it's unusual for a pig to get out of such a truck.

Police say the truck driver, who will not be cited or charged with any violation, took the dead pig with him.

Source

450,000 Shekel Fine to Pig Farm Owners for Water Pollution

Updated: 03/02/2009

On February 22, 2009, the Acre Magistrate's Court convicted the owners of a pig farm to the east of the Mi'ilya local council in northern Israel of operating a pig sty without a business license and of polluting water sources. The defendants were convicted of allowing pig farm wastes to flow untreated into unsealed earth pools, from where they overflowed to open space, littering the public domain and endangering water sources with pollution. In addition, wastewater was discharged from the pools to open space, using leaking pipes, and pig carcasses were discarded on the ground. The defendants were convicted of violations under the Water Law, 1959, the Water Regulations (Prevention of Water Pollution) (Evaporation and Collection Ponds), 1977, the Licensing of Businesses Law, 1968 and the Maintenance of Cleanliness Law, 1984. Court Sentence Defendant 1 was given a suspended imprisonment sentence of three months for a three year period on condition he does not contravene provisions of the Business Licensing Law and the Water Law. He was fined 350,000 shekels or 30 months of imprisonment in lieu of the fine. He was also required to sign a financial obligation in the sum of 300,000 or 30 months of imprisonment to refrain from a similar offense under the Water Law for three years. Defendant 2 was fined 100,000 shekels or 12 months imprisonment in lieu of the fine. He signed a financial obligation of 100,000 shekels or 12 months imprisonment to refrain from a similar offense under the Water Law for three years. The total fine, in the sum of 450,000 shekels, will be paid to the Cleanliness Maintenance Fund. The court also issued a judicial shutdown order against the pig farm, requiring the defendants to immediately shut down operations in the farm, in light of the fact that the business operates without a license and causes environmental hazards, as well as due to the fact that a temporary shutdown order was issued against the farm within the framework of interim procedures. In his sentence, the judge emphasized that "offenses that damage the environment are not to be belittled and damage to the landscape, to land and to water sources, is, at times, irreversible. Therefore, significant penalties should be imposed on anyone who continuously harms our life sources - air and water." The judge went on to state that "the offenses in the case should also be viewed in terms of their economic-profit aspects since the defendants were able to draw real profits from operating the business in this way, and therefore it is only right that high fines should be imposed on the defendants...in order to deter continued offenses."  Source

Arizona needs to put an end to barbaric sport

15 commentsMar. 2, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Most people have never heard of something called "hog-dogging."

Once you know about it, we think you'll support banning it.

It's an event in which a trained attack dog is set on a pig. Much like dog fighting, people bet on the outcome. Some even take their children to see animals painfully injured.

Kathleen Mayer, legislative liaison for the Pima County Attorney's Office, says the dogs, usually pit bulls, are trained to go after the ears, groin and thighs of the more-or-less defenseless pigs.

The pigs don't always die. Injured animals are used over and over. In one event, she says, there were 95 dogs and 19 pigs.

Law enforcement has known about hog-dog fighting for two or three years, but little can be done to stop it. Statutes specifically ban dog fighting, not dog-hog fighting.

Sen. Jonathan Paton and Rep. Kyrsten Sinema want to change that. They have bills that would expand current statutes that make dog fighting a class 5 felony to include all animals. Basically, that means replacing the word "dog" in statute with the word "animal."

Then law enforcement could go after the organizers of these barbaric events.

Sinema's bill, House Bill 2150, passed the House Judiciary Committee unanimously. Paton's bill, Senate Bill 1115, is being held along with all other Senate bills until the budget is done.

Arizona needs to update its laws to ban this nasty form of animal cruelty.

Source

Blue-ear pig epidemic hits three Vietnamese provinces

www.chinaview.cn  2009-03-02 13:23:53

HANOI, March 2 (Xinhua) -- A blue-ear epidemic in pigs is developing in three Vietnamese provinces, resulting in nearly a thousand of pigs being infected with the blue-ear virus, said the Department of Animal Health under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on Monday.     In northern province Quang Ninh, the disease infected about 50 pigs raised on two local farms, said the department.     In central province Quang Nam, the virus is plaguing pig farms in 20 communes of four districts, causing the culling of nearly 700 pigs, said the department.     Meanwhile the disease broke out recently in the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu, infecting 13 pigs with the blue-ear virus, said the department.     The ministry vows to speed up measures to prevent diseases in livestock this year.

Editor: Xiong Tong

Source

Genetically Modified Pigs to be Bred for Organ Transplant Harvesting

NaturalNews) A British lord and fertility researcher has announced plans to breed genetically engineered pigs, for the purpose of harvesting their organs for transplant into humans.

"Pigs' organs are the right size for human transplantation, and they work similarly to human organs," said Lord Winston, head of the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology at Hammersmith Hospital in London.

Health professionals have attempted to transplant organs from animals into humans before, but research in the field dropped off in the late 1990s when early transplant attempts were rejected and attacked by recipients' bodies as foreign tissue. Concerns over the possibility that transplants could facilitate the spread of diseases from animals to humans also contributed to a drop in the field's popularity.

Now Winston and colleagues from Imperial College want to revive the idea by breeding pigs that contain six human genes, in order to decrease the chances that the pigs' organs will be rejected by human bodies. They have formed a company called Atazoa that has successfully created transgenic pig sperm, but their research stalled due to strict British regulations over transgenic animals.

"One of the biggest problems in Britain is the regulatory framework. It's been very difficult to get this sort of animal work going," Winston said.

The researchers initially had to wait 13 months before they were licensed to genetically modify the pigs, then were told that regulations prohibited breeding genetically modified animals on agricultural land.

In response, Atazoa has moved its research to the United States, which has drastically fewer regulations concerning genetic research on animals. The researchers will breed the pigs with genetically modified sperm in Missouri, and hope to produce a fully modified animal within the next two years. After that, they hope to begin clinical trials to demonstrate that the genetically engineered organs are safe for human transplant.

Source

MRSA in pigs and pig farmers

http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/01/mrsa_in_pigs_and_pig_farmers.php

Swine industry hopes 2009 brings positive change

By Blair Koch, Ag Weekly correspondent

The pork budget for 2009 was set with zero expectation for growth, said Independent Meat Company CEO Patrick Florence.

In fact, Florence said the nation, Independent Meat included, will probably process less pork than last year. The move comes as customers bypass pork products for cheaper meat as they cut back spending.

“For 2009, we’re looking forward to lower production. It looks like we are going to see, nationally, processing levels at 96 percent of 2008,” he said.

Like every other sector in the nations economy, the swine industry is holding its breath to see if 2009 will turn around the recession or if things get worse.

While emerging markets are there to capitalize on, from Asia to Mexico, the big question is what will happen over the next three or four quarters.

“Price expectations have altered because we’ve had significant economic changes. For six to eight months out, there is some question on the demand side,” Florence said.

Kuna Hog Farmer Brad Thornton doesn’t expect a turnaround soon and slashed his herd size drastically, taking losses now before they get worse, he said.

“Things are changing, around the world, so rapidly, but I don’t think it’s going to get much better until the end of 2010,” Thornton said.

In the meantime, industry officials are trying to promote pork with the USDA’s Agriculture Marketing Service’s Pork Checkoff Program.

The national pork checkoff, implemented in 1986, was designed to strengthen the position of pork and pork products in the marketplace. It is funded by U.S. pork producers and importers who pay 40 cents per $100 of value when swine are sold and when swine or pork products are brought into the United States. Funds collected are used for promotion, research and consumer information programs.

According to information at the National Pork Board Web site www.pork.org, funded by the checkoff, the program has helped increase domestic demand and has introduced pork abroad.

The USDA AMS recently conducted a request for referendum on the program. USDA Conservation Specialist Glenn Patrick explained the referendum will address whether or not producers and importers want the program to continue.

“The Request for Referendum is to see if producers want to continue with the marketing program,” Florence said.

AMS will conduct a referendum on the order if at least 15 percent of the total number of eligible pork producers and importers request it.

Source

Pig pollution costs farmer £4,000

Published Date: 22 December 2008

A BRIGG area pig farmer is having to find £4,000 to pay for fines and court costs after allowing slurry waste to run off his farm in three different ways, seriously polluting Froghall Drain, Howsham.

James Edward Andrews, trading as Lincolnshire Pigs pleaded guilty to three charges of causing pollution and was fined £1,000 on each with £1,000 costs.

Cotswold Farm in Cadney Road, Howsham is a pig breeding unit which has up to 4,000 pigs and has been operated by Andrews and a partner for the past four years. He admitted to Environment Agency officers that he had no drainage plan for the farm and did not know if there were land drains in the fields.

Mrs Miriam Tordoff, prosecuting, said the pollution had resulted from a combination of poor management and a lack of knowledge of the site’s drainage.


‘The accumulative environmental impact of the discharges was serious, having a major impact on the invertebrate community in Froghall Drain and extending as far as Kettelby Beck. The polluting effect was evident for at least 10 days,’ she said.


There were three separate leaks into the drain; one from an overflow of a storage lagoon, one from the farm’s sewage treatment plant and a third from a land drain.


The Environment Agency was alerted to the first leak on April 9 when someone reported pollution in the Froghall Drain. Liquid pig waste was running into a tributary of the Drain from a trench which officers traced back to the farm.


There they discovered that the trench led from the slurry lagoon which was full to the top and overflowing down a bank and into the tributary. Andrews started to fill in the trench with soil to prevent any more waste getting into the water.


Officers returned to the farm the following day to take more samples and saw that slurry was leaking from a corner of the slurry lagoon and running across a field before getting into the Drain in several places. On a third visit they found the ground saturated from slurry run-off from the farmyard.


While still investigating the first incident on 10 April, Agency officers also found a blue pipe discharging into Froghall Drain. Previous owners were authorised to discharge fully treated sewage liquid through the pipe from a sewage treatment plant but the consent had not been passed to Andrews and partner and the liquid was not of a suitable cleanliness, Mrs Tordoff told the court. ‘The sewage treatment plant was found to be clean and dry inside,’ she said.


On their third visit to the farm officers also discovered an orange pipe (the subject of the third charge) which was also discharging polluted liquid into the tributary. The source of the discharge could not be traced. ‘Knowledge of the site’s drainage could have prevented the discharge,’ said Mrs Tordoff.


Andrews told investigating officers that he relied on farmers taking the sewage effluent to spread on their fields to keep the level in the lagoon down but because of bad weather in March that had not happened.

There was no system in place to deal with the slurry if the lagoon was full and it had never been that full before.

He said that in the future more slurry would be taken out of the lagoon during the previous summer months to make sure it did not fill up. A contingency plan has now been put in place to ensure this incident does not happen again.

Mrs Tordoff told magistrates: ‘Samples showed that all of the discharges were grossly polluting and had a polluting effect on the entire length of the Froghall Drain downstream of the farm to where it meets with Kettleby Beck and including a short stretch of Kettleby Beck.’


After the hearing Environment Agency officer Keith Hughes-Marshall said: ‘Farm slurry is highly polluting and can have a serious impact on river quality, and aquatic life. Slurry should be stored in properly constructed and well maintained lagoons with sufficient storage capacity. This incident could have been avoided with better site management and planning.’


The Environment Agency offers advice on pollution prevention. If farmers do have any concerns about their slurry storage arrangements, they should contact 08708 506 506.




Andrews, trading as Lincolnshire Pigs, pleaded guilty to:


1. Between 8 April 2008 and 19 April 2008 you did cause poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, namely slurry, to enter controlled waters, namely the Froghall Drain at Cotswold Farm, Cadney Road, Howsham, Lincolnshire.


Contrary to section 85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991


(SLURRY LAGOON OVERFLOW)


2. Between 9 April 2008 and 19 April 2008 you did cause poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, namely sewage effluent, to enter controlled waters, namely the Froghall Drain at Cotswold Farm, Cadney Road, Howsham, Lincolnshire.


Contrary to section 85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991


(BLUE PIPE - STW DISCHARGE)


3. On or about 18 April 2008 you did cause poisonous, noxious or polluting matter, namely organic effluent, to enter controlled waters, namely the Froghall Drain at Cotswold Farm, Cadney Road, Howsham, Lincolnshire.


Contrary to section 85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991


(ORANGE PIPE DISCHARGE)

• Last Updated: 22 December 2008 10:00 AM
• Source: Market Rasen Mail
• Location: Market Rasen
• 
  

Source

Some Austin pork plant workers struggle with disease and its aftermath

by Sea Stachura, Minnesota Public Radio

December 18, 2008

A year after a neurological disease surfaced among workers at a pork plant in Austin, some workers still can't get worker's compensation for their illness. Doctors traced the disease to a mist of pig brains at Quality Pork Processing.

Austin, Minn. — Felicitas can't do much now besides watch TV. She'd rather be working, but the disease doctors say she developed at Quality Pork Processing--or QPP-- makes everything a struggle. Even walking from the living room where her daughter's toys are piled in the corner and to the kitchen where her mother is cooking dinner.

"Now, nothing is the same," she says in Spanish. MPR news translated her comments into English.

Felicitas is in the country illegally, so we've agreed to only use her first name.

The disease originated at the "head table", where workers would stick hoses with compressed air into pigs' skulls to blast out the brains. Felicitas worked on the head table for only a week, but she walked through the area half a dozen times a day for three years.

The pressurized air created an aerosol mist of pig brains. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic and the Health Department found that breathing in the brain matter prompted an auto-immune response in workers' bodies. That means their bodies began to attack the nerves in the arms and legs, and sometimes even the central nervous system. For Felicitas, at first her hands and feet started to go numb.

"I felt horrible. I couldn't walk. If I sat down I had to help myself up with my hands. In order to climb stairs I had to pull myself with both hands," she says.

Felicitas's claim for worker's comp was denied by QPP's insurance company. As a result she can't afford to buy the steroids she needs to manage the disease. Shortly after she renewed her request for worker's compensation, QPP fired her.

She was told the company discovered she was working illegally. QPP confirms that. Courts have ruled that workers can receive workers' compensation regardless of their immigration status.

"Who determines whether or not an individual is a case and who's not from a worker's compensation perspective is completely out of my hands," says Mayo Clinic neurologist Dan Lachance, one of two doctors treating all of the QPP workers.

Lachance says he does not work with QPP's insurance company.

"I have no idea what criteria the people deciding are using even though we are the ones who are defining the disease," he says.

Lachance, along with scientists from the Center for Disease Control and the Minnesota Department of Health recently submitted scientific articles on the disease to a major medical journal. QPP has hired a neurologist from Johns Hopkins University to decide whether a patient qualifies for worker's comp. But Lachance says that neurologist has not been privy to any of the research on the disease or to the patients.

MPR news has spoken with two diagnosed workers who have been unable to get worker's compensation. A worker's compensation lawyer tells MPR, he represents two other workers who have also been denied coverage.

Quality Pork Processing has been open about this disease and fully responsible for its workers, according to company president Kelly Wadding.

"We said anybody has any symptoms or problems even family members, come up tell us about it. We drove people to the doctor's," he says.

Each worker's comp cases is thoroughly reviewed, Wadding says. But the process has taken longer than usual because this is a new disease.

"I think 95 percent of the people who have been diagnosed are covered under worker's comp," he says.

Wadding can't discuss specific cases, and won't go into detail on the criteria for worker's comp. But he will say that Felicitas's case is being re-examined.

That's news to her, and in the meantime she's making do without her medicine.

"There's no point to my life anymore. I feel like a burden to my family. It's not fair to them and it's not fair to me," she says. "It's really hard. The truth is it's really hard to live with this disease. But what can I do?"

Source

I am shocked this pig crisis can occur in the era of traceability

By Oliver McDonnell

Tuesday December 16 2008

I don't intend to comment on the current state of affairs in our country other than to say that my overriding reaction is one of utter shock and indeed anger.

Shock that such a thing could happen in these days of traceability, and anger that our whole agricultural industry -- including our reputation -- could be placed at indescribable risk by such action.

We have all been thrown into turmoil this past couple of weeks so much so that I must admit that I am finding this diary very hard to write. I just can't get my thoughts together.

However, I have to say that I admire all of our localDepartment of Agriculture staff who have worked practically around the clock and who have adopted a most understanding and friendly approach to farmers in general. They did their investigations efficiently and with the minimum of fuss, while at the same time recognising that none of this is our fault.

Thank God none of this whole sorry business affects us personally. Other than that, I had a load of cattle ready for sale, but these may now wait until after Christmas and until some order is restored to the agricultural industry in general.

Holding on to these cattle for the extra couple of weeks will pose some housing problems for us, insofar as we have planned for cattle coming in and cattle going out at specified times, but it cannot be helped in the circumstances and we will deal with it.

We have empty housing which can be used. It is a bit inconvenient because it is at the far end of the farm, and feed will have to be hauled there which is time consuming.

As we prepare now for the Christmas period and try to organise our work to give ourselves some free time, the roller is working flat out to build a small stock of rolled barley. The lads have given me their Christmas orders too as they also want to ensure that they have sufficient stocks on hand.

Having said this, the roller cost us a small fortune a few weeks ago when it broke down. However, this is the first time it has required major repair. The cost of the spare parts was considerable, but the cost of labour was astronomical and, to my mind, unsustainable.

When I first bought the corn roller some five years ago, the machine cost €13,000 and it will now cost €7,000 to repair. While we have no way of knowing exactly how the labour charges were billed, we worked it out roughly that if two men worked on the machine for two days then we were charged in excess of €115/hour.

Now, while I know that labour charges such as these have become the norm, it is a serious concern. Farmers cannot afford such labour charges and will return to fixing as much as possible themselves in an effort to curtail machinery costs on the farm.

Anyway, despite the huge cost of repairing the machine, I was glad to get it back into action within a couple of days.

Murphy's law applied here. The machine broke down at the worst possible time when the yard was full of cattle, but fortunately we had a couple of days' supply of rolled barley on hand. We feed 80pc of the ration in the form of rolled barley and wheat and so cannot be without this vital machine.

I took a walk out through the tillage fields a few days ago and was heartened to note that the late-sown wheat is doing very well indeed.

We changed our seed this year and are delighted to see the aggression of performance and development despite the difficult sowing conditions.

No spraying has been done as yet but, having said this, there doesn't appear to be a weed problem. However, we are keeping ahead with slug pellets because these little pests are capable of clearing all before them overnight unless halted.

Less than half of our tillage crop is actually sown at this stage. The weather has been terrible this year but the last few weeks of frost have certainly been welcome and are more akin to the winters of our memories.

Housed cattle are healthier in cold weather conditions and we all feel more uplifted when we can stay in the same set of clothes for a whole day without getting soaked. Let us hope that this cold weather is a forerunner to better conditions for the new year so that we can catch up on crop sowing.

Now, more than ever, it has been brought home to us the importance of using natural, home-grown products over which we, as farmers, have some measure of control.

Meantime, there is great excitement on the home front as our 11 grandchildren count down the days to Santa's arrival and, with great interest, inspect the Christmas tree and all the decorations on every visit. It really is a time for children and we are so privileged to be able to enjoy it a second time around.

- Oliver McDonnell

Source

Can You Identify these Pig-Stabbing Suspects?

CONVERSE, Texas - The search is on for the teens that went into a Judson ISD school barn and stabbed a pig to death.

It was all caught on surveillance video at Judson High School.

Seen on the video are two people, with their faces covered, who enter the barn.Police say they appear to be teens and are familiar with the area. The pig that was killed was a project of one of the high school students.

School officials hope the surveillance tape will help catch the criminals.

A Judson ISD spokesperson says it is offering a cash reward for the apprehension and conviction of the people involved. 

If you have any information call the Judson ISD Police Department at 210-659-7867.

Source