Day 091 - 17 Feb 95 - Page 55
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, we understand all that, but then how do
2 we get to the neck skin more than the other deboned meat?
3 Is that because there is a greater risk of contamination of
4 the neck skin for some reason?
5 A. Yes, there is. The bird is hanging upside-down. All
6 the material drains to the bottom. The neck skin is the
7 ultimate place where contamination could occur.
8
9 MR. MORRIS: That would be after evisceration?
10 A. Yes.
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: These things are not always obvious unless
13 you spend half your life in these places.
14
15 MS. STEEL: Salmonella burden in the deboned meat, is that
16 going to be the same as the isolation rate from the neck?
17 A. It is going to be fairly similar because the deboned
18 meat, obviously, has to be handled quite a lot and again
19 there is a risk of cross-contamination. The meat itself at
20 the actual slaughter stage is probably not very
21 contaminated, but it does become contaminated after the
22 deboning process, that all the handling that is required.
23 You have to remember that we are not doing a quantitative
24 test for salmonella. All we are doing is a test for the
25 presence or absence.
26
27 Q. So when the isolation rate was 30 per cent on the neck,
28 what would have been the typical salmonella burden in the
29 deboned meat?
30 A. Normally probably around 20 to 25 per cent.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So back to our 20 to 25. You find it in the
33 gut of 1 per cent of the birds?
34 A. Yes.
35
36 Q. In so far as you test that. You have to eviscerate the
37 bird. You have a lot of handling. The neck stands the
38 best chance of all the areas of the bird of being
39 contaminated. There is your end result of 30 per cent.
40 The rest of the bird stands a fair prospect of being
41 contaminated but not quite to the same extent, there is
42 your 20 to 25 per cent?
43 A. That is correct, yes.
44
45 MS. STEEL: How often is Campylobacter found in chickens?
46 A. Campylobacter is quite a common organism. It is found
47 as a natural contaminant of the intestinal tracts.
48
49 Q. So it is found in virtually all chickens?
50 A. Most of the surveys that have been done by Public
51 Health Laboratory and so on have found about 70 per cent
52 isolation rate on raw poultry.
53
54 Q. That would be typical for Sun Valley as well?
55 A. Yes, we would be no different.
56
57 Q. Does that have any effect on the chickens?
58 A. No, it does not affect them at all.
59
60 Q. To cause food poisoning in humans, it only needs a low
