Day 113 - 03 Apr 95 - Page 40


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I suggest is deal with beef for the time
     3        being because it certainly helps me if we keep cattle and
     4        pigs apart for the moment.  In any event, we have been
     5        careful on other occasions to put pigs on one side for the
     6        moment.  Mr. Morris or Ms. Steel will come back to that.
     7
     8   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  (To the witness):  Beef?
     9        A.  Would you mind just repeating the question?
    10
    11   Q.   The concern about the use of antibiotics as a standard
    12        treatment for disease in cattle, is there any concern about
    13        the human health of the people that consume that beef?
    14        A.  Yes, if could I take milk, there is and, in fact, it is
    15        most sensitively shown by the fact that cheese makers
    16        cannot make the cheese go ripe because it kills off the
    17        bugs that do the cheese making, so that is a sort of
    18        indicator.  But, I think far more serious is the
    19        transmission of multiresistant bugs.  So, that if a doctor
    20        has to treat a patient with some, say, respiratory disease,
    21        particularly a baby or an old person, he uses the usual
    22        drugs at his disposal and those bugs -- he uses the usual
    23        drugs at his disposal and the bugs have developed a
    24        resistance, so the patient's conditions goes on worsening
    25        before he can find one -- if there is one -- that is left
    26        that he can find that is effective.  That is a danger.
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Where is the patient getting the bugs from in
    29        the first place?
    30        A.  By eating the meat, by having it in the fridge which
    31        might spread to other foods, in general, picking up the bug
    32        that way.  Salmonella, I have mentioned, salmonella
    33        typhimurium.
    34
    35   MR. MORRIS:  Mr. Chambers -- I have not got the reference --
    36        said that -- it can be checked -- twice in the previous
    37        four years -- Mr. Chambers was a representative of Midland
    38        Meat Packers for McDonald's -- in a series of monthly
    39        checks by MAFF for residues, twice out of four years, they
    40        had been over the limit.  If that is a good indication,
    41        something like four per cent of the tests were over the
    42        limit, does that give you cause for concern?
    43        A.  I think you are referring to the MRLs, are you?
    44
    45   Q.   Yes.
    46        A.  Maximum residue levels or limits?
    47
    48   Q.   Yes.
    49        A.  Am I right?
    50 
    51   Q.   That is correct. 
    52        A.  Yes, it is of concern.  They should not be above that. 
    53        The maximum residues levels are set to represent the
    54        maximum -- the word "maximum" is operative -- which should
    55        be allowed with good husbandry.  If they are exceeded, that
    56        is a sign of bad husbandry.
    57
    58   Q.   Are you happy with the MRL limits that have been set as a
    59        person who is professionally concerned with this area?
    60        A.  No, we are not, because sometimes the maximum residue

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