TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

[Whyperion]

Look on the bright side , armed with that information you should get a good deal on your pension annuity.

Noticed the public unveiling of the eye implants of CCDs into optic nerve , looks like it could assist some persons whom have become blind.

[Stanley]

News report on World Service this morning of a rise in problems with eyesight in East Asian children. Put down to not enough time spent outdoors in daylight (minimum three hours).
Later I remembered my old optician in Stockport 60 years ago telling me never to wear sunglasses unless it was for light reflected off snow. He said that making the eyes cope with changes in light levels was good for the musculature that controlled them and I have always followed his advice. He gave me another exercise as well, he told me to take off my glasses while outside and try to make out objects at a distance, he said that it was good exercise for my eyes. He also told me that it's a good thing to stare at infinity whenever you can as that also was good exercise. Looking back I suspect he was a better man than I thought at the time and perhaps well ahead of his time.

[Stanley]

Tiz, Tuesday morning, 'The Life Scientific', Lovelock is on. Heard him this morning saying which of his achievements he considers the most important, no hesitation, he said Gaia.

[Stanley]

News this morning that a study has recommended that everyone over 50 should take statins to reduce bad cholesterol and the risk of heart attacks. (LINK) Include me out as Sam Goldwyn used to say. I'll stick to my exercise and healthy eating, it's got me this far! Lots of opinions are being expressed about the medication of otherwise healthy people for 'lifestyle ' diseases. It sounds to me like the easy way out. Pity gentle exercise can't be marketed as a p;ill, it would be a blockbuster!

[Tizer]

Bovine TB disguised by liver fluke: Cattle infected with a common parasite could be spreading TB across Britain undetected (22 May 2012, Nature journal)

"Cows infected with both bovine tuberculosis and a common liver fluke may not test positive on standard TB tests. Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) could be spreading across Britain because the most widely used test for the disease is ineffective when cattle are infected with a common liver parasite. The liver fluke Fasciola hepatica was already known to affect the standard skin test for bTB, but it was unclear whether the fluke stopped the disease developing or merely hid the symptoms. A study published today in Nature Communications suggests that the latter is more likely, and that the effect is significant. It estimates that around a third of bTB cases in England and Wales are undiagnosed because the test is less sensitive in cattle infected with the fluke."

The Badger Trust has asked the government to hold off the badger cull because the accuracy of the results of surveys to estimate the extent and distribution of bovine TB are now in doubt.
http://www.nature.com/news/bovine-tb-di ... ke-1.10685

[Stanley]

That's bad news Tiz. I've seen three major eradication policies in agriculture in my lifetime, Bovine TB, Brucellosis and BSE. What strikes me is that one would imagine the Liver Fluke/TB connection was there all the time but there can be no doubt that what used to be regular TB testing of milking cattle and slaughter of reactors reduced the incidence of TB to the point where, with proper safeguards, unpasteurised milk can be regarded as safe. The comparison skin test has always been recognised as a blunt instrument but in practical terms it worked. I wonder how many other unknown factors are at work.
As for the badger cull... I have never been convinced by the argument that they were a more efficient vector for infection that other species. Think about birds and rodents. There could be a similar hidden connection between deer and cattle in the transmission of Foot and Mouth. Many experts believe that the deer population is a reservoir of F&M but proper trials have never been made. During the last F&M outbreak I suggested that during the hunting season a simple blood sample should be taken from every deer that was culled and sent for testing. Not ideal I know but it could have given some indications at very low cost. I was ignored of course.....
Then there was the very persuasive hypothesis that Manganese deficiency could have been an important factor in BSE but because the main proponent of the theory was outside the scientific community and regarded with suspicion it seemed to be ignored. Funny thing is that in the early days of the outbreak when governments were desperate to avoid admitting that BSE was endemic in their herds it was described as 'Manganese Deficiency' in France and the US and herds were slaughtered on those grounds. Like all science, the deeper you go the more complicated it becomes.

[Tardis]

Thanks for that Tizer, as I said I wasn't fully awake when it came on the Farming Today programme.

If it is a carrier then it could be the reason why a park operative was told to pull out the watercress from Valley Gardens, although I note there is still quite a bit of it there. Certainly wouldn't like to eat any of it, even if the risk is low.

Might be easier to stop grazing the sheep above Valley Gardens beck tributaries if they want to continue their "wild harvest"

They were cleaning it yesterday apparently ready for the Green Flag inspection

[Stanley]

If they clear it out it will be ridiculous. I'll bet that Colin would have protected it if he had still been in post. (He retired recently) Has anyone been infected?

[Tizer]

"Has anyone been infected?" It takes months before an infection shows up, and then only some people, not all, show any symptoms. So some might be infected but show no effects, others would be badly affected and if they don't get correct diagnosis and treatment could suffer eventual liver damage.

[Tardis]

I quite welcome you being a test guinea pig if you want Stanley. The issue is simply about minimising risk, especially when there is a mixed message about "wild harvest" without anyone saying that things are in fact safe to eat.

[Tardis]

The farming press is today pushing the liver fluke story, bu stating that 1 in 4 cattle are infected

[Stanley]

I've been exposed to stuff like this all my life but never let it bother me, part of the rich tapestry. The only one that got me was Brucellosis and I still have that but it doesn't affect me these days. Against this, balance what the effect has been on the efficiency of my immune system. Has anyone considered the valuable role the watercress has in filtering the water passing through it? It was still there yesterday at 8am....

[Stanley]

Gardeners in Scotland have been warned about Legionnella Longbeachae contracted from compost. Speculation that it might be because of the move from peat to wood chip and other innovative bases for compost. Doctors have been warned to watch out for it in other parts of the UK because it is a very rare strain and may not be recognised.

[Tardis]

I wonder if they are trying to trace this back to the compost makers to see if it is actually reaching the certification point i.e. sterilised to agreed EU limits

[Stanley]

Reports this morning that Tuna caught off the West coat of America have traces of radioactive caesium which can be traced back to Japan. They say it is a 'safe' level but I'll bet it does nothing for the public's view on whether they want to risk it or not. How do they know what is safe? Personally I think that anything above natural background radiation or contamination can't be said to be safe. Shpuld they just keep quiet until there is cause for concern?

[Tardis]

No idea about danger, but they found radioactive caesium in the tuna

[Bruff]

Nothing is 'safe'. Absolute safety does not exist, much as we might it want it to. Neither does zero risk, again much as we might want it to. The issue is one of trade-offs and appropriate language. That is, what is 'safe enough', and how do we communicate this? People can then make up their own minds. Me? I'd eat the tuna. Now and again.

Richard Broughton

[Bodger]

Were back in Stanleys view, the world and its inhabitants, have evolved through, meteor impacts, ice ages, and various other catastrophes, and we are still here, if we did'nt know there was contaminated tuna we would eat it and develop a resistance naturally, look at rats and the various poisns tried, they develop their own resistance and thrive, if we start to live in a "bubble" we will become extinct.

[Tizer]

We're close to radioactive elements all the time, but living organisms developed DNA repair mechanisms to cope with it at what we now call background levels. It's easy to detect radioactivity at extremely low levels and you could probably demonstrate its presence in everything we eat and drink and breathe. In fact the oxygen in air we breathe is more dangerous and the cells of our bodies have a bigger job dealing with that than with radioactivity. If the oxygen content of air increased we would find things bursting into flame spontaneously around us and our bodies would age very fast, if we didn't die first from the toxic effects on our lungs.

[Stanley]

I remember being quite surprised when I first visited Strontian on the West Coast of Scotland and found that Strontium 90 was named after the peninsula which has the most radioactive rocks in Britain. If we had the same levels in Barlick there would be a panic. Life is a terminal disease anyway. They've been telling me for years that smoking kills.... still here enjoying me Condor!

[Tizer]

There are warnings going out now about the danger from radon in Scotland. People in the West Country take it in their stride and the Scots could follow their lead.

[Stanley]

See this LINK for a report on the fact that up to a third of cardiac arrests in hospital could be avoided. Also draws attention to the use of resuscitation even when terminally ill patients have asked for it not to be done.

[Tizer]

Quick, pass around the hard hats! The Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way are on a collision course! Only two billion years to go....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18285583

[Tizer]

At long last the US Food and Drug Administration is being put under pressure to do more to stop the misuse of antibiotics in animal feeds and thus reduce the problem of antibiotic resistance in bacteria pathogenic to humans and other animals...

FDA ordered to rethink antibiotics in animal feed
"According to Reuters, a U.S. federal judge said the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had done “shockingly little” to address the human health risks of antibiotic use in animal feed and, in a ruling filed June 1, ordered the agency to reconsider two petitions seeking restrictions on the practice. U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore Katz in New York questioned the federal agency’s arguments that it would be less costly and more efficient to ask the industry to voluntarily cut back on the use of such antibiotics, rather than go through the regulatory process of revoking the approval of such drug use on farms and at feed lots. In his ruling, Katz found that the FDA behaved in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner when it dismissed two citizens’ petitions that asked the agency to consider banning farmers from using antibiotics on livestock for non-therapeutic uses. The FDA had rejected the two petitions—filed in 1999 and in 2005—because of the time and expense to hold formal withdrawal proceedings.

"Critics of antibiotics in animal feed called the ruling a victory in an increasingly contentious fight. Meanwhile, the livestock industry was disappointed by Katz’s order, and said the use of such medications is necessary to prevent and treat animal health issues. In response to the ruling, the Animal Health Institute issued the following statement: `The actual human health risk of the use of antibiotic use in animals resulting in the inability of the drug to treat human disease is extremely small - in one instance, less than the risk of dying from a bee sting. Research also shows antibiotics are one of the many tools used to enhance food safety.'"
[Note that the US Animal Health Institute is not a government institute but a body funded by the companies selling animal health products...such as as antibiotics. I don't understand their statement, it seems misleading.]

More here from Reuters LINK

[Stanley]

About time too.... I remember when calf dealers found there was a sure cure for their most common problem, scouring in calves taken of their mother's milk too early and infected by dirty feeding methods. It was a miracle pink powder called Tetracycline. I've seen the dairy floor running pink as the powder was mixed with the milk used for feeding calves. Theoretically it wasn't available to the public but plenty got into the food chain.