SEPRA News
|
Omega-3
The Press this week have been reporting on the food we eat, and the food we should eat. This, coupled with numerous mentions of diets, has brought in the mention of omega 3 and fatty acids and their benefits to humans.
I also this week, and I shall tell you more later, had a fax in about the costs of certain items in daily use both in 1973 and today, taken from the Daily Express.
The mention of Omega 3 reminded me that SEPRA had publicized about this fatty acid and its benefits for humans years ago. I was reminded also that we featured it in an April 1st scam in 1995 and to lighten the content of today’s report I have reprinted the SEPRA scam from 31st March 1995.
There had been talk of compounders making rations with an Omega-3 content which would transfer to eggs. This we used as an April Fool scam.
URGENT
I must apologise for the such short notice given about this possible venture.
Professor Po' Rolfial, who's originally from the town of Harbin in Manchuria, only informed me of this offer this week. Unfortunately he is to fly back to the States on Tuesday and it doesn't give us much time.
Basically you've heard about it before. It is the Omega Tech process of producing eggs which contain the long chain highly unsaturated fatty acid omega-3. This acid has been demonstrated to have an ability to increase cardiovascular protective factors. It is found in quantity in fish but if fed to poultry this can lead to fishy tastes and odours.
Omega Tech, a Colorado based company have found a way of obtaining pure omega-3, mainly EPA and DHA, from harvesting certain single cell algae.
To produce these eggs you have to feed the layer on a compound which contains this omega-3 and Prof Po' Rolfial has arranged with the four main UK national animal feed compounders to manufacture this ration. It will cost you no more than your present ration (if yours is made by one of the four compounders) and the eggs will be collected weekly packed in new boxes on new trays for shipment by air to Hong Kong.
For the first six months there will be a flat rate payment per dozen with no grading required. Initially they only want sizes two, three and four. Only 200 cases per week are required in the initial exports and he would like the collection points not too far apart ! I'm sure we'll get round that one?
You will be amazed at the price per dozen offered and he will inform you on receipt of your phone call.
(a telephone number was given
- no longer valid)
I shall not name those members who telephoned my friend who answered their call “April Fool “, and like me, enjoyed the scam. Today there are Omega-3 eggs on sale in retail shops.
Also reported in that March 31st Report was the occasion of Hugh Ford’s retirement Dinner at Banff.
I met many SEPRA members there including Ethel Chapman who complained about the lack of funny stories in the Market Report, so to correct her criticism I'll tell you the story she told me about the young and attractive lass from Peterhead.
This lass was trying to stowaway on a boat to the Far East . After a fortnight at sea she was eventually discovered and taken before the captain.
The Captain was most surprised to find her so well fed and well turned-out and asked her who had befriended her. When pressed she finally admitted that she had been to the second officer's cabin every day for a bath and a meal. What did he ask in return ?
"I suppose you might say that he took advantage of me " she replied.
The Captain retorted, "I'll say he did. You're on the Aberdeen to Kirkwall ferry. "
32 years ago
Getting back to the Fax comparing prices, 1973 / 2005, a pack of cigarettes was 27p compared with £5.10 today. That’s an increase of 1,788% !
Eggs, retail, were 14p for six. Today they are 89p, up 535%. What was the producer price in 1973 ?
All the old past copies of your SEPRA market reports are in the safe hands of the Scottish Museum at East Kilbride, from about 1975 I think. It is possible today to have them scanned and put onto disc in PDF form. This will be a more efficient way in which to record 30 years news of eggs ?
I intend to find out the cost of this operation which could be carried out by a commercial company ? There is over 30 years of the history of poultry in Scotland, though I do have electronic copies from 1995 onwards.
Bird Flu
Avian Influenza continues to hog the Press, though I must admit it has taken a bit of a ‘nearer to middle page’ recently.
The BBC is to show SEPRA member Ian Niven give his answers to the effect and costs of AI on a typical egg layer unit. Ian’s of course is a free-range unit and is supposedly more at risk from wild bird infection. It is hoped that they show part of Ian’s other excellent enterprise, his Farm shop and restaurant. Ian appears on Landward TV 22nd and Grassroots Saturday 21st.
There have been reports that some companies have been using the bird flu scare to market products which are supposed to protect the public from the disease. Also that prices of the products have been hiked up !
I found the following which I believe typifies someone’s greed and disregard for honesty ?
BEIJING -- Late last fall, a village official visited Wang Jicheng, a poultry farmer in the northern Chinese province of Liaoning, to warn him that chickens in the area were dying by the thousands, probably from bird flu. Mr. Wang wasn't too worried; a month before, he said, he had paid $225 for 28 bottles of condensed vaccine to protect his chickens and had spent 2 1/2 days injecting each of his 10,000 birds. But the day after the official's visit, Mr. Wang saw three-wheeled bicycles ferrying bags of bird carcasses past his farm to a bonfire to be burned. Then his own poultry began to die. Within a few weeks, all of his chickens had died or been slaughtered to prevent the spread of the disease.
It turns out that Inner Mongolia Biopharmacy Co., the small maker of the avian flu vaccine that Mr. Wang bought, had no license to manufacture the vaccine and was making a low-quality product, according to the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. About five weeks after the epidemic hit in Liaoning, the government announced the arrest of six of the company's executives and ordered the firm to stop making the vaccine.
The government has authorized nine companies in China to produce bird-flu vaccines, which Beijing says are now distributed free of charge to farmers by local veterinary stations. END
AI Vaccines
I received the following letter from Intervet this week giving news of their AI vaccine.
AVIAN INFLUENZA VACCINE FOR POULTRY NOW AUTHORISED
We are delighted to announce that a marketing authorisation for Intervet's Avian Influenza vaccine, Nobilis Influenza, has been granted by the UK authorities. The vaccine is for the active immunisation of chickens, ducks and other avian species as an aid in the control of outbreaks of Avian Influenza type A, subtype H5 (the type causing the current outbreak) and also subtypes H7 and H9.
Intervet has considerable expertise in developing and manufacturing avian influenza vaccines. The company has previously developed vaccines which were successfully used in the control of Avian Influenza outbreaks in Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico and other areas of the world. We are very pleased that this has enabled us to obtain this marketing authorisation, the first in the European Union for an avian influenza vaccine.
The sale and supply of these vaccines is only allowed under the particular conditions established by the European Community legislation on the control of Avian Influenza. Use of the vaccine must be authorised by the competent UK authority and Nobilis Influenza is categorised as a POM-V product. END
I am led to believe that complete authorisation has to come from the E U, and not DEFRA, before use of this vaccine can be authorised for use in UK.
I also hear that DEFRA may be changing its attitude regarding the use of a vaccine in the UK.
Some of our “ experts” could even be changing their views regarding a human A I vaccine?
I believe the front page of the Sunday Post this week was worrying and is it no wonder the public are querying the potential dangers of poultry ? I know that sales of chicken have been affected by the stories on bird flu which the public are reading and believing.
Professor Pennington has certainly appeared in many Press releases and stories.
There are two schools of thought regarding countering a bad story ? Many of us at the time of salmonella for example were of the opinion that the word should not be mentioned and that false stories in the Press should not be countered ? It was thought that it would only open debate on the subject?
It is the same with A I. Some want to counter some of the rubbish printed, but that may only offer an opportunity for a reply, thereby keeping the subject open.
Others believe in letting the subject alone in the hope that it will go away ? Who is correct ? You tell me.
Bird flu casualties
In reports of death from A I it should be noted that victims have been living with their chickens, sometimes within the bedroom ! An article this week brought this point to the fore.
As bird flu cases rise at a disturbing pace in Turkey, new research offers a bit of hope - it's likely that many people who get it don't become seriously ill and quickly recover.
Although not definitive, the new study suggests the virus is more widespread than thought. But it also probably doesn't kill half its victims, a fear based solely on flu cases that have been officially confirmed.
"The results suggest that the symptoms most often are relatively mild and that close contact is needed for transmission to humans," wrote Dr.Anna Thorson of Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm and colleagues who conducted the study. So far, the bird flu deaths in Turkey involved children playing with dead chickens.
The new study involved 45,476 randomly selected residents of a rural region where bird flu is rampant among poultry _ Ha Tay province west of Hanoi. More than 80 percent lived in households that kept poultry and one-quarter lived in homes reporting sick or dead fowl.
The researchers said between 650 and 750 flu-like cases could be attributed to direct contact with sick or dead birds. While most patients said their symptoms had kept them out of work or school, the illnesses were mostly mild, lasting about three days.
Dr. Gregory Poland, a Mayo Clinic flu specialist, said the human cases counted so far likely have been the most severely ill patients treated at major hospitals, while another expert said "The closer the contact with sick or dead poultry, the higher the risk for flu-like illness,"
The deadliness of reported bird flu cases "has been one of the features that has galvanized international interest" and stoked concerns that it could turn into a pandemic, said Dr. William Schaffner, a flu expert at Vanderbilt University.
To my simple mind it is a pandemic of fear, spread by those looking for headlines?
Dennis Surgenor
Links to external internet sites provided in this weekly market
report are provided as a service to SEPRA members and SEPRA web site users.
All links are checked at the time of publication but are not historically
validated.
SEPRA is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.