Day 093 - 28 Feb 95 - Page 59


     
     1   Q.   The National Research Council, you know who they are?
     2        A.  Yes.  I mean the figures, the question you were asking.
     3
     4   Q.   They estimate that sickness, injury and premature death of
     5        cattle represents an economic loss of $4.6 billion a year
     6        in the United States?
     7        A.  It is possible, yes.  That is assuming, when they make
     8        those kinds of assumptions, and I have seen several of
     9        those reports, they assume that if everything were perfect,
    10        if no animal was under stress, if they have a perfect life,
    11        this is what you could save.  That obviously does not
    12        happen.  It does not happen in any biological system.
    13        There are animals that will die from natural causes.  There
    14        are animals that will die from disease. There are animals
    15        that will injure themselves.  That is going to happen.
    16
    17   Q.   Is it not right that it is actually cheaper to run the
    18        systems that you use and have a certain amount of animals
    19        sick and ill then it is to run less intensive systems?
    20        A.  No, that is thoroughly the opposite.  That is
    21        incorrect.
    22
    23   MR. MORRIS:  How do they try to combat disease in the feed lots?
    24        A.  That is a wide very and general question.  A lot of it
    25        is through prevention.  A lot of it is through good
    26        management practices, primarily, feeding, vaccination,
    27        having the right type of animals, having the right type of
    28        environment overall for the animal.  From going to the
    29        cowboys they go to the feed lot making sure the animals
    30        look healthy, and if they spot a problem they isolate it.
    31
    32   Q.   But they are regularly sprayed with insecticides, yes?
    33        A.  Regularly, no.  It happens -- not on the feed lots.
    34        Prior in the grasslands where in the pasture they go
    35        through similar to what you would see on chickens, they go
    36        through a -- they dig a hole, put concrete and the animals
    37        go and take a bath, take a dip to control the insects, but
    38        not in the feed lots.
    39
    40   Q.   Do you know someone called Orville Shell who he wrote a
    41        book called Modern Meat in 1984 when you were doing your
    42        studies or after that?
    43        A.  I do not know remember the name.
    44
    45   Q.   In the US there is no restriction on the use of beef from
    46        Canada, is there?
    47        A.  Restriction?
    48
    49   Q.   Yes.
    50        A.  In what sense, trade? 
    51 
    52   Q.   Beef in Canada gets used in the USA? 
    53        A.  Yes.
    54
    55   Q.   That is fairly standard.  There are big producers in
    56        Canada?
    57        A.  Yes, there are.
    58
    59   Q.   So they are not a hot country, are they? I thought when you
    60        said about feed lots being in mainly hot states ----

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