It wasn’t a dirty pipe. That is the claim made by veterinarian and farm performance consultant Frank Rowson, as reported by Stuff yesterday:
Vet links botulism to farms not pipes
A veterinarian and farm consultant doubts the recent Fonterra botulism scare was caused by a dirty pipe, and says he is sitting on material that will embarrass the dairy giant further.
This is very bad news indeed. But this material must be made public. We can’t fix the problem until we are honest about what it is.
Matamata veterinarian and farm performance consultant Frank Rowson says Fonterra should be tracing the source of the Clostridium botulinum bacterium back to farms or their own water supply.
He doubts Clostridium botulinum was caused by an old pipe at Fonterra’s Hautapu plant and said it had to get in there in the first place. …
Rowson said: “This disease originates in contaminated feed and animal manure, and research all over the world of which I am part, shows that GM feeds and the use of increased amounts of glyphosate herbicides increases the prevalence of this disease in pigs, poultry and dairy cattle, and the neuro toxin that causes the disease will pass through the food chain into milk.” …
“The dirty pipe would be contaminated by product from cows or water supply and the organism would multiply in the dirt in the pipe. Therefore they should be tracing back to farms or their own water supply.
“The most likely source is on farm in silage or grains/soy in mixed rations, all of which have glyphosate which stimulates growth of Clostridia and other pathogenic bacteria and fungi.
“That’s what gets into the pipes, otherwise, I hope it is not in their water.”
It’s understood the whey was never tested for glyphosate because Fonterra believed it is not related to the current quality issue.
This is a major threat to the biggest earner in our economy. We need to be honest about the problem and fix it. Otherwise the next scare – and there will be a next scare – will be devastating. Our farming methods must be safe and sustainable, and the government needs to act to make it so.
In other news this morning, this opinion piece in Stuff:
A good time to ditch NZ’s tainted brand
The first rule of advertising should be: Never say anything you can’t justify. Our nation’s brand is 100% Pure, a claim we can’t justify. …
I think we should ditch it, give it up as a tainted brand and come up with a new one.
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