Day 103 - 14 Mar 95 - Page 41


     
     1
     2   MR. MORRIS:  What percentage of the eggs do not hatch?
     3        A.  The hatchability, average hatchability, is 84 per cent.
     4
     5   Q.   So about 16 per cent do not hatch?
     6        A.  Yes.
     7
     8   Q.   If left for an extra day most of those would hatch, would
     9        they?
    10        A.  No.  A lot of them would be infertile eggs.
    11
    12   Q.   So what percentage would hatch, something like half of that
    13        16 per cent?
    14        A.  No, I would think it will be very small, very small
    15        numbers, but I do not know because we do not leave them.
    16
    17   Q.   You have never left them an extra day or anything?
    18        A.  No.
    19
    20   Q.   So how do you know then it would be small numbers?
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You have, presumably, done some research or
    23        experiments in the past, have you?
    24        A.  Yes.  I mean, we know -- we will always break out a
    25        sample from every flock.  We actually break them open and
    26        have a look and see why they have not hatched.  The
    27        majority of those would be infertile or embryos that have
    28        died in the last stages of incubation and, occasionally,
    29        you will find an embryo that is still alive there which may
    30        or may not have hatched, but that is a relatively small
    31        part of the overall sample that you examine.
    32
    33   MR. MORRIS:  So of that 16 per cent from your findings, the 16
    34        per cent have not hatched, how much of that 16 per cent may
    35        be would have hatched or were still alive when you found
    36        them, approximately?
    37        A.  I do not know, about -- in any one sample that you open
    38        up probably you would find two or three per cent might be
    39        still alive.
    40
    41   Q.   Of the 16 per cent?
    42        A.  Two or three per cent of the sample.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, that is as near as one can get to a test
    45        of the 16 per cent, is it not?
    46        A.  Yes.
    47
    48   MR. MORRIS:  So it would be two or three per cent of the 16 per
    49        cent?
    50        A.  Yes. 
    51 
    52   Q.   Of the whole? 
    53        A.  Yes.
    54
    55   MS. STEEL:  Do you export any chicks?
    56        A.  No, we do not.
    57
    58   Q.   You do not?  You said in your evidence-in-chief that the
    59        chicks do not need food and drink while they are being
    60        transported.

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