Day 107 - 24 Mar 95 - Page 67


     
     1        are spread different ways.  These days, in recent history,
     2        I suppose, about -----
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Did you mean him to stay on E.coli?
     5
     6   MR. RAMPTON:  He is making an analogy, my Lord, I think.
     7        A.  I am creating a model and then assuming that
     8        E.coli  -----
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, when you said "a model" I thought you --
    11        you carry on.
    12
    13   THE WITNESS:  -- would form a similar pattern.  So, that I am
    14        saying there is a precedent set by salmonellas, and the
    15        tendency, as I say, the last 30 years-ish is that strains
    16        appear in various locations in the world, and within a few
    17        decades you tend to find then their distribution
    18        worldwide.
    19
    20        We have recent history of this, of course, with the
    21        enteritidis which is now being observed in Australia.  It
    22        seemed -- I say "seemed" -- to have started in the United
    23        States, came over to the UK, spread throughout mainland
    24        Europe.  It is now into Eastern Europe.  As I say, it has
    25        been identified isolated in Singapore and India and
    26        Australia.
    27
    28   MR. RAMPTON:  So that we may try to understand this as well as
    29        we can, is it known or is it possible to identify the
    30        vehicles or mechanisms by which that migration over a
    31        period of decades may take place from one place to another?
    32        A.  There are different theories; some have been very well
    33        documented, some have been by animal feed.  There have some
    34        of that instanced.  Others, there is a suspicion it has
    35        been humans, spread from humans into the animal community.
    36        In some instances, there is good evidence of spread by
    37        migrating birds.
    38
    39   Q.   That might be particularly so, might it not, of salmonella
    40        which is present in large quantities in wild birds, is it
    41        not?
    42        A.  I think it is fair to assume in that salmonella and
    43        E.coli are so closely related that a mechanism of
    44        distribution which applied to salmonella could also apply
    45        to E.coli 0157.
    46
    47   Q.   Are they biologically related?
    48        A.  Yes, they are.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are you going on to another topic, 
    51        Mr. Rampton?  It is just that when you were looking at 
    52        tab 4, my eye fell on a reference to apart from gastric 
    53        acid being protective, intestinal flora being protected;
    54        that is so, is it?
    55        A.  It seems to be, yes.
    56
    57   Q.   So that is another protective mechanism within the body, is
    58        it, intestinal flora?
    59        A.  I tend to believe that is the case.  It is interesting
    60         -- my Lord, you are probably be familiar -----

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