Day 090 - 16 Feb 95 - Page 48
1 in the factory will have a small mark of some sort on the
2 hock and that is a normal, quite a regular feature.
3
4 MS. STEEL: That is the current figures, is it?
5 A. That would be our current figures.
6
7 Q. So, prior to the changing of the water system, what would
8 it have been, 30 per cent or something like that?
9 A. We perhaps have had more of that in the past, maybe 20
10 per cent.
11
12 Q. 20 per cent?
13 A. But these are small pin point lesions. These are not
14 big, gross, black ulcerated lesions.
15
16 Q. What about previously, though?
17 A. Well, I am saying about 20 per cent.
18
19 Q. Some of those would have included larger Hock Burns?
20 A. You get all degrees, varying degrees, but the larger
21 ulcerated lesions are much, much rarer than the small pin
22 point black marks which are more the feature now.
23
24 Q. That is at Sun Valley?
25 A. Yes.
26
27 Q. Did you used to have more involvement with the day-to-day
28 running of individual broiler houses or have you always
29 been, kind of, overseeing?
30 A. The trouble with so many houses is that I cannot
31 honestly say that I have ever had day-to-day contact. My
32 involvement with farms is usually when they have a specific
33 problem that they want to get sorted out. So, routine
34 day-to-day management I do not regard as my normal
35 responsibility.
36
37 Q. Has it ever been?
38 A. No.
39
40 Q. Have the managers ever mentioned the frequency of incidence
41 of the environment/index.html">litter becoming capped?
42 A. Yes. It is a constant -- I mean, it is a very
43 important part of management responsibility to ensure that
44 the environment/index.html">litter remains in good condition. It would be
45 something that you would routinely check and discuss with
46 the manager on a site visit. If there is anything common
47 -- like a few years ago, for example, when we recognised
48 that too much animal fat in the diet could cause greasy
49 environment/index.html">litter; over a number of units, if you start to see greasy
50 environment/index.html">litter, you realise that there must be a common cause. So,
51 you go back to the cause which, in fact, in this case was
52 the diet, and you make changes. So, it a constant review
53 process.
54
55 Q. That situation was what you found a few years ago before
56 the diet was changed?
57 A. Yes, that is correct.
58
59 Q. How long was it before you found out what the source of the
60 problem was? Did it take long to investigate that?
