Day 091 - 17 Feb 95 - Page 49


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are we on human health or animal welfare or
     2        both on these topics?
     3
     4   MS. STEEL:   To be honest, I do not know.  I have just a note to
     5        ask about them, that is all.  I am sure it will fall into
     6        place.
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just a pause for a moment.
     9
    10   MS. STEEL (To the witness):  How does that affect the chickens?
    11        A.  OK, septicaemia is a condition which will produce
    12        mortality in chickens and chickens with salmonella
    13        enteritidis, it is not a problem in older chickens but
    14        typically it will kill chickens in the first 10 days of
    15        life.  So it will cause mortality and it will cause some
    16        stunting of growth.
    17
    18   Q.   Does it cause any other ill-effects?
    19        A.  There is no other, no visible ill-effect.
    20
    21   Q.   It is, in fact, a risk to humans as well, is it not, if it
    22        remains in the meat?
    23        A.  Yes, it is.
    24
    25   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can I just understand that?  If they pick up
    26        the E.coli -- the salmonella, then it is a risk to humans?
    27        A.  Yes.
    28
    29   Q.   But is it a risk in eating, well, I suppose with
    30        salmonella, it is, that is the most obvious way of getting
    31        it, of eating the meat insufficiently cooked to kill this
    32        strain of salmonella, is that it?
    33        A.  That is correct, it would have to be insufficiently
    34        cooked.
    35
    36   MS. STEEL:  This particular strain of salmonella can cause acute
    37        and sometimes fatal food poisoning in humans?
    38        A.  Yes, it can.
    39
    40   Q.   The chickens can carry that without necessarily suffering
    41        ill-effects, can they?
    42        A.  It is possible for chickens to carry the organism, yes.
    43
    44   Q.   So what was the position when the birds were suffering from
    45        it at Sun Valley?  Were they still being used, were they
    46        still being processed for ---
    47        A.  Yes.
    48
    49   Q.   -- meat use?
    50        A.  We would carry on processing on the basis that 
    51        contamination of poultry with salmonella is something that 
    52        we have seen before, and there was no reason for doing 
    53        anything different with this particular situation.
    54
    55   Q.   You had an outbreak of Gumboro disease, is that right, is
    56        it not?
    57        A.  Yes.
    58
    59   Q.   Was that just one outbreak?
    60        A.  No, we had -- Gumboro disease became a problem on many

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