Day 094 - 01 Mar 95 - Page 23


     
     1        A.  No.
     2
     3   Q.   -- if one is infected?
     4        A.  That is incorrect.  When they are in confinement in a
     5        controlled environment, there is a much better opportunity
     6        to control diseases.
     7
     8   Q.   But if one gets it, because they are all closely in
     9        together, they are all likely to be infected?
    10        A.  If one, yes.
    11
    12   Q.   Would you accept that the processing lines move so fast
    13        that thorough examination of the carcasses is all but
    14        impossible?
    15        A.  Yes, I would.
    16
    17   MR. MORRIS:  You said that when you test for Salmonella you test
    18        one per cent of birds, or something, or a piece which you
    19        are testing, and the bacteria is not evenly spread, it is
    20        in patches, yes?
    21        A.  That is correct.
    22
    23   Q.   So when you are testing, well, most times you will not find
    24        the infection?
    25        A.  Yes, that could happen.
    26
    27   Q.   So when you find, say, on a particular day that 22 per cent
    28        of birds were identified as having Salmonella infection,
    29        the other birds that you tested, you do not know whether
    30        they had the Salmonella infection or not because you may
    31        not have actually found it, they may have been infected?
    32        A.  That is correct.
    33
    34   Q.   Just moving on to meat, to beef products.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We will have our five minutes there.
    37
    38                       (Short Adjournment)
    39
    40   MS. STEEL:  Can you just explain at what point, you said that
    41        McDonald's only gets a certain percentage of the meat from
    42        each chicken.  At what point is the meat split off that
    43        goes for McDonald's and that goes to other places?
    44        A.  During what we call the deboning room.
    45
    46   Q.   Right.  So, it is before it gets to the processing, the
    47        actual processing into ------
    48        A.  Nuggets or McChicken, yes.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  When you have a McDonald's line or a 
    51        dedicated part of a Tyson plant, does that begin, the 
    52        McDonald's part of it, after the deboning? 
    53        A.  No, no.  It totally starts from the beginning from the
    54        breeding stock.
    55
    56   Q.   So the meat which you do not require is taken out of the
    57        line somewhere else, is it?
    58        A.  That is correct, and it is sold through Tyson to their
    59        customers.
    60

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