Day 107 - 24 Mar 95 - Page 66
1 A. I think if there had been I would have been aware.
2
3 Q. You know there has only been -- I say only, regrettable
4 enough in all conscience, but there has only been the one
5 case of outbreak of E.coli 0157 at Preston in January 1991?
6 A. Well, I do not think that is strictly true, sir.
7
8 Q. Why do you say that?
9 A. My understanding of the Preston outbreak is that was a
10 multi-locus outbreak and, therefore, there were other shops
11 involved.
12
13 Q. For the purpose of this case McDonald's have accepted some
14 responsibility for that outbreak, on the basis that the
15 epidemiology showed that it was probable that, at any rate,
16 some of the victims had eaten hamburgers at that restaurant
17 over a period of time on one day.
18 A. That is the general thrust of the report, as I
19 understand it.
20
21 Q. That is the general thrust. The suspicion was (and it has
22 been accepted for the purposes of this case) that the
23 reason was that for some part of that day the hamburgers
24 were being under-cooked?
25 A. It seemed also that the mechanism was occurring in
26 other shops.
27
28 Q. Yes, it may have been, but the multi-local, or whatever you
29 like, source of the disease was not in every case
30 McDonald's, you see. I do not want to argue -----
31 A. I do not think we need spar on this.
32
33 Q. No, do not let us go into it, but assume that McDonald's
34 were, to some extent, at least responsible for that
35 outbreak, which was a serious outbreak -- no doubt about
36 that -- over that period of time and, given the number of
37 meals served, do you have any comment about the fact that
38 there is only one such identifiable outbreak or not?
39 A. It is a relatively new disease.
40
41 Q. In this country?
42 A. In this country.
43
44 Q. Do you know when it was first identified in this country?
45 A. Let us see, I am not sure in this country, I think was
46 it a Sheffield outbreak -- I cannot remember exactly.
47
48 Q. Tell me something which perhaps I should have asked
49 Mr. Bennett (and I will ask for once in my life a question
50 to which I do not know the answer): Suppose you have a
51 discovery of what might be a mutated strain of E.coli or a
52 form of E.coli 0157: H7 discovered (which was America in
53 1982), by what means is it possible, if at all, to predict
54 the migration of that mutated strain to other countries?
55 A. We have some models for that.
56
57 Q. Some?
58 A. Some models. The salmonella progression, the strains
59 of salmonella progression, we have actually some history of
60 seeing how they spread worldwide, and different salmonellas
