Day 019 - 27 Jul 94 - Page 60
1 you give some rough guidance on how many?
A. What type of injury are you thinking of?
2
Q. Injuries caused by loading, handling for loading?
3 A. When I said what type of injuries, I meant which part
of the body of the bird.
4
Q. Any really?
5 A. The most common form of injury in the live bird due to
handling would be red wing tips. It is a bruising in the
6 wing tips sustained by flapping and hitting a hard object.
7 Q. Right. In terms of the numbers that -- do you have any
idea how many of these are likely to end up dead, how many
8 are likely to go on to the slaughter line?
A. In the case of red wing tips, it is not likely to kill
9 any of the birds. They are all likely to be live when
they are hung on. The prevalence will vary considerably
10 according to how well the birds are caught, what the level
of lighting is, for example, in the shed at catching; the
11 higher the lighting the more the birds will flap. The
predisposition of the birds; some birds either because of
12 a genetic factor or for some behavioural component which
is non-genetic, do tend to flap more than those in the
13 industry have referred to as "flighty" birds.
14 Q. What about things like dislocations then or maybe more
serious than the red wing tips?
15 A. As I said earlier on, where you have a dislocated hip
it is likely you will get an extensive haemorrhage which
16 will kill the bird. Having said that, I have at one of
the plants here in this survey, they had dislocated hips
17 which were identified at the postmortem inspection. That
is the meat inspector who is deciding whether the meat is
18 fit for human consumption. He identified dislocated hips
in the birds that had gone through and, evidently, been
19 hung on line. So, it can happen that you can get some
birds going through with dislocated hips. But my first
20 comment still stands, though, it is unlikely to kill them.
21 Q. What about other injury, say, in between?
A. Right. Other parts of the carcass, do you mean?
22
Q. Any part of the bird.
23 A. Other dislocations could occur particularly in the
wings. That is an area that is prone to dislocations.
24 I have seen birds suspended on shackles with dislocated
wings. As to where in the whole procedure it is caused,
25 it is difficult -- I do not know to be sure which is the
most important procedure, whether it is hanging on in the
26 processing plant or whether it is at catching. No
comment.
27
Q. Hanging on the shackles?
28 A. Correct. If you look in table 3, it gives a
prevalence of these sorts of -----
29
Q. Which page are we on?
30 A. I beg your pardon. This is of K in the orange file.
It gives the prevalence of these dislocations in the dead
