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Microbiologist muzzled

by US Department of Agriculture

James Zahn, PhD, formerly employed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), has identified harmful, antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the air around factory pig-raising operations.

His studies suggest that these superbugs can invade neighboring farms and sicken both people and animals.

In April 2002, when he was preparing to present these findings at a conference of family farm and environmental advocates in Iowa, the USDA ordered him to cancel his presentation.

According to Robert F Kennedy, Jr, this order was instigated by the lobbying of the National Pork Producers Council.

Writing in the Canadian magazine Alive, Croft Woodruff went on to point out that a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (1998) showed that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are also a byproduct of the beef industry. Then, he asked the question:

Is it avian flu or superbugs?

When avian flu hit British Columbia last spring, the province's chief veterinarian asked the question on CBC Radio News "Why chickens on free-range farms haven't been infected?"

According to Woodruff, that question should have "scuttled, once and for all" the idea that avian flu is caused by wild bird droppings which fall freely on free range farms but do not penetrate the roofs of chicken factories. Free range chickens have no need for the antibiotics with which factory fowl are dosed to prevent them from succumbing to disease caused by the unhealthy conditions in which they are confined.

Woodruff goes on to point out that antibiotics destroy beneficial bacteria in the intestinal tract as well as those that cause disease. Eliminating friendly bacteria can cause dysbiosis in humans, a condition that can cause flu-like symptoms.

These observations suggest the possibility that avian flu could be caused by antibiotics rather than a virus thought to be transmitted by wild birds. Alive, August 2004

Alliance for Responsible Science

challenges animal-based toxicology testing

At a meeting of the European Social Forum in London on October 16, the Alliance for Responsible Science presented the case for using more reliable, faster acting modern research methods, instead of crudely poisoning animals, to assess chemical toxicology .

The Alliance was represented by speakers from organizations in France, Italy and the UK including :

Prof Claude Reiss (France), molecular toxicologist and President of Antidote-Europe

Prof Gianni Tamino (Italy) biology professor at University of Padua and President of Equivita Scientific Committee

Enrico Moriconi (Italy) veterinarian, President of ASVEP and Green Counsellor of the Piedmont Region

Daniela Guerra (Italy) member of Executive Board of Italian Greens

Caroline Lucas (UK) member of Green Group in European Parliament

Jarrod Bailey (UK) member of Europeans for Medical Advancement

Also speaking were Fabrizia Pratesi, (Italy) coordinator of EQUIVITA Scientific Committee and Joy Palmer, (UK) Co-founder/Director of Doctors and Lawyers for Responsible Medicine who presented a paper on behalf of Moneim A Fadali, MD (US), President of DLRM

Excerpts from Fadali paper:

"Europeans are besieged by more than 100,000 chemicals, surreptitiously permeating their systems, inundating their organs and penetrating their cells. . .The European Commission (EC) has decided that these products must be evaluated. With this we concur, but we do not chime in with the EC putting its faith in animal-based testing, invalid and harmful. . . Moreover, according to the EC's Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation of Chemicals we will get to know this risk in by the year 2020. . .Why not 2004, 2005 or 2006 at the latest? . . .Human cells and human tissue cultures are yearning to give the correct answer within the hour or hours, not years distant . . . The grim toll continues to mount: cancer rates are increasing, asthma, , . especially in children, is soaring and the 10 billion cell human brain is increasingly drifting, propelled into early dementia. . . ."

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