Day 089 - 15 Feb 95 - Page 24


     
     1        called splayed legs where, if birds are badly handled, the
     2        legs spread out and ultimately it can lead to a lame bird,
     3        so the handling practices in the hatchery are very
     4        important.
     5
     6   Q.   What about, for example, treatment with medicines and
     7        antibiotics?
     8        A.  For infectious causes of leg problems, there are, it
     9        can sometimes be effective to use antibiotic treatment, and
    10        for the first week of life we now use an antibiotic which
    11        is given in the feed which greatly reduces infectious
    12        causes of leg problems, and this has been referred to,
    13        I believe, by Neville Gregory.
    14
    15   Q.   Yes, it was but I did not want, as it were, to lead you
    16        through his evidence.  It seemed to me it is probably
    17        better if it comes from you.  How long has that been going
    18        on for, that treatment, is it routine?
    19        A.  It is a routine treatment.  It has been going on for,
    20        I suppose, about 18 months now.
    21
    22   Q.   Has it had a noticeable effect?
    23        A.  It has had a very dramatic effect.  The use of
    24        antibiotics has always got to be done with care.  You can
    25        generally only use antibiotics for a certain length of time
    26        before bacteria will build up resistance to that antibiotic
    27        and you have to change it.  So, we do from time to time
    28        change the type of antibiotic that we, and this will
    29        greatly improve the effectiveness of the antibiotic if
    30        changes are made from time to time.
    31
    32   Q.   Have you been able to work out how often the change needs
    33        to be made?
    34        A.  We would make a change every six to nine months.
    35
    36   Q.   Whose idea was it to start using this kind of system to
    37        reduce or prevent leg disease caused by infection?
    38        A.  Well, this particular treatment was my own idea and
    39        I believe I was the first in the industry to use this.
    40
    41   Q.   Have you been imitated?
    42        A.  Yes, it has been tried elsewhere and different
    43        variations on that type of treatment have been tried and,
    44        I believe, with some success.
    45
    46   Q.   Is it right that a proportion of the chicks which are
    47        hatched are for one reason or another disposed of before
    48        they get transported?
    49        A.  A very small number of chicks, if they are second
    50        grade, or they have got some sort of infection or some sort 
    51        of abnormality, do have to be disposed of at the hatchery. 
    52        This is done humanely using ----- 
    53
    54   Q.   I am coming to the method in a minute.  I would like, first
    55        of all, if I may, to have a rough idea of the numbers.  You
    56        say on an average day there might be 200,000 hatched,
    57        200,000 altogether?
    58        A.  Yes.
    59
    60   Q.   Of that 200,000, roughly speaking, on an average day, how

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