Day 091 - 17 Feb 95 - Page 27


     
     1
     2   Q.   So has there been an improvement over the last five or 10
     3        years?
     4        A.  An improvement in what?
     5
     6   Q.   In the diet and in the leg problems as a result?
     7        A.  I believe that there has been an improvement in the
     8        diet and there has certainly been a reduction in leg
     9        problems which relate to nutritional deficiencies.
    10
    11   Q.   When do you feel that that improvement occurred?
    12        A.  That has occurred during the last five to 10 years.
    13
    14   Q.   Is that a steady improvement or is that a ----
    15        A.  It is a steady improvement.
    16
    17   Q.   A point that came up the other day about genetically
    18        induced leg problems.  I think you said that that meant
    19        that they were problems that the birds were born with.  Do
    20        you actually mean by that they are born with a
    21        predisposition to leg problems rather than actually being
    22        born with leg problems?
    23        A.  Yes, there are two different aspects to it.  There are
    24        specific conditions which are inherited and, therefore, are
    25        genetically determined and an example of that would be the
    26        kinky back that we talked about.  We know that there are
    27        certain families in poultry in the past that have carried a
    28        gene which determines the incidence of kinky back.
    29
    30        There are other genetic disorders where there is simply a
    31        predisposition to the condition simply through some
    32        particular characteristic of the bird.  For example, tibial
    33        dyschondroplasia is an example of a condition that occurs
    34        in a fast growing bird like a broiler whereas it does not
    35        occur in an egg layer which is a slow growing bird.
    36
    37   Q.   In the broilers that would be affected by something, for
    38        example, we have just been talking about the diet, it could
    39        be affected by that?
    40        A.  Yes.
    41
    42   Q.   Whether or not the bird ended up suffering from it?
    43        A.  That is correct.
    44
    45   Q.   Moving on to broiler breeders, when is the food restricted
    46        for these birds?
    47        A.  Broiler breeder, the restriction starts around four
    48        weeks of age.
    49
    50   Q.   To what degree is the food restricted? 
    51        A.  The limitation on the diet is that we feed the birds 60 
    52        grammes per day at around four weeks and then they get 
    53        small increases through to about 14 weeks where we then
    54        start to increase the food in preparation for those birds
    55        coming in to lay.
    56
    57   Q.   What would the level be as at 14 weeks?
    58        A.  We are increasing to about 80 to 90 grammes at that
    59        stage.
    60

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