Bernards Matthews and Phages

Dear Sir/Madam,

First, a Happy New Year to all at Bernard Matthews!

I'm sure your research teams are generally on the ball regarding food
safety issues. However, despite most food processor's stringent care
with food safety, there is always the spectre of bacterial poisoning
hanging over the food industry.

Campylobacter, E. Coli etc. can be lethal to the young, the infirm and the
elderly and indeed also to people who's immune systems are reduced
due to poor diet and ignorance on the current levels of soil nutrition i.e.
nutrients in the soil which plants convert to vitamins, and which, together
with minerals provide the vital building blocks of our immune systems.

You may or may not be aware that the US FDA has recently sanctioned
research on the use of bacteriophages on human volunteers, and that
some Canadian & US firms/Unis have researched the adding of 'phages
to animal feeds to drastically reduce E. Coli from the digestive/waste
tracts.

Phages have been around for billions of years and are Nature's way of
keeping a balance in the bacteria population. Phages are a species of
virus which ONLY attack bacteria (and for the purposes of this
discussion, only Lytic phages are used in phage therapy).

Phage therapy, as applied to human treatments was probably what was
inferred in Biblical tracts e.g. 2nd Book of Kings ...."and his skin became
as that of a new born child".. following a dip in some river or other! In
modern times, it was discovered by UK doctor Fredrick Twort, expanded
upon by Felix d'Herelle (who was instrumental in collaboration with
Georgian scientist Georgi Eliava, who founded his Institute in Tbilisi,
Georgia). Googling "phage therapy" will produce a host of references to
this therapy.

Phage therapy has been used in Georgia successfully for the last 80
years, treating thousands of people, also was used in both World Wars,
by Russian & German troops to reduce battlefield infection deaths. It is
tried & tested, has never been shown to harm even one patient, but is
still shunned by our NHS, possibly because it was abandoned by the US
chemical companies in the late 30s when they found a way to
synthesise antibiotics and make huge profits. We all now can see the
chickens of that policy (no pun intended) coming home to roost e.g.
MRSA. A group of us, including retired Canadian microbiologist Bill Riedel,
are continually lobbying our Glorious Leaders to get them to see the
wood for the trees and to change their policies; the evidence is blindingly
obvious, to those who care to look. "There are none so blind as those
that will not see".

I have always understood your Company to be in the forefront of R&D
and think this would be a PR opportunity not to be missed, far
outstripping any philanthropic rewards gained from your most generous
lifeboat sponsorship. Just imagine, a Bernard Matthews Phage Therapy
Centre! No-one would then ever ask why someone had built a statue to
Mr. Bernard Matthews!

Some useful links below, for your information.
Relax
Well

target="blank">Phages.org

href="http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?s
eq_no_115=174198" target="blank">USDA Agricultural Research
Service

href="http://oasis.bbsrc.ac.uk/netans-bin/gate.exe?f=toc&p_lang=english
&p_d=GABI&p_op_ALL=AND&p_L=25&p_search=searchgabi&a_search
=&p_plural=yes&p_s_WWW=Y&p_s_CONF=N&p_s_PI%2CSUPV=&p_s_I
NAM%2CWINS=&p_s_RONO=&p_s_WEBG=%22bacteriophage+therapy
%22" target="blank">Salmon Fishing

Yours sincerely,

Mike Jozefiak

Thomas Hausler:- Viruses-V-Superbugs