Day 102 - 13 Mar 95 - Page 46
1
2 Q. So that is a standard practice?
3 A. Yes, it is.
4
5 Q. So it is standard within any load that some of the birds
6 will have Hock Burns?
7 A. Well, some loads do not have them at all, others will
8 and it is very variable.
9
10 Q. Where you have got several birds in a load that have Hock
11 Burn, do you then go and investigate the farm, or would you
12 just deduct the money and leave it at that?
13 A. An investigation may take place but, usually, it is
14 sufficient to feed back the information for the farmer or
15 farm manager to investigate it himself.
16
17 Q. How many birds would be affected before you started
18 investigating?
19 A. Well, I think we would be concerned that -- again Hock
20 scabs are graded. There are very small ones which are pin
21 point ones, and the standard definition of a Hock Burn is
22 to have three pin point lesions on the hock would be
23 classified as a Hock Burn. Obviously, they can vary
24 greatly in severity, and so they are just the numbers and
25 not necessarily all that meaningful, and sometimes the
26 severity of the Hock Burn is actually more important. So,
27 if you have a large coalescing lesion on the hock and you
28 have a lot of birds in that sort of category, then that is
29 the sort of case which requires investigation.
30
31 Q. That is something that has happened on a number of
32 occasions?
33 A. Many times, yes.
34
35 Q. What has the investigation found?
36 A. Well, generally, the investigation finds that there has
37 been wet environment/index.html">litter, capping of environment/index.html">litter, and perhaps
38 insufficient use of heating and ventilation to keep the
39 environment/index.html">litter working properly.
40
41 Q. Do you make recommendations to the farmer?
42 A. Yes, we do. I also have to say that there has been
43 tremendous improvement in environment/index.html">litter conditions since we
44 started to use enzymes in feed. That improves the
45 digestability of things like insoluble carbohydrate
46 fractions that occur in barley and in wheat, and has helped
47 environment/index.html">litter management enormously.
48
49 Q. Is it not correct that in the last 12 to 18 months there
50 have been several incidents of lorries loaded with live
51 birds tipping over?
52 A. That has occurred, yes.
53
54 Q. On several occasions on the way to Sun Valley?
55 A. Yes, that has happened.
56
57 Q. That when this happens several hundred birds can die,
58 sometimes a few thousand?
59 A. That can happen, yes.
60
