Day 288 - 28 Oct 96 - Page 39


     
     1        activity and improve bird welfare, we believe brighter
     2        light to be necessary.  We therefore recommend that all
     3        houses should have light levels sufficient to allow all
     4        birds to see and be seen clearly.  We consider that a
     5        suitable average light intensity is likely to be at least
     6        20 lux throughout the house at bird eye height and the
     7        industry should be encouraged to adopt this level of
     8        illuminance.
     9
    10        Just to point out that obviously again this is a
    11        recommendation being made by the very committee that Dr.
    12        Patteson sits on and that his company is disregarding that
    13        recommendation, by keeping the lighting levels normally at
    14        between 10 and 20 lux.
    15
    16        And also in the same document, on page 13, under paragraph
    17        35, it states that intensively reared broilers are usually
    18        kept in artificial light except for a short period of
    19        darkness of about 20 to 30 minutes each day.  This period
    20        ensures that the birds become used to total darkness
    21        preventing panic in the event of power failure and
    22        assisting with the biological development of diurnal ribbon
    23        (?).  And then underlined, the Council supports this
    24        practice and recommends a regulation to require that all
    25        birds be provided with a period of darkness in every 24
    26        hours.  We suggest that this period should be at least 30
    27        minutes.
    28
    29        And again, Sun Valley typically having a period of 20 to 30
    30        minutes of darkness in any 24 hour period do not follow
    31        those recommendations, and that is the minimum
    32        recommendation.
    33
    34        And on day 90, page 30, line 43, Dr. Patteson said he was
    35        aware of the reported evidence suggesting that brighter
    36        light can stimulate activity and so reduce leg problems in
    37        the chickens.
    38
    39        He did say that the lighting at Sun Valley could be turned
    40        up to 200 lux but that routine inspections were only done
    41        at 20 lux.  That was day 90, page 29, line 60.  So clearly
    42        there is not even anything standing in the way of them
    43        turning up the lighting, but they are choosing nevertheless
    44        to ignore the recommendations, effectively because if they
    45        turn the light up, as we have heard, the general activity
    46        of the birds increases and it can result in aggression
    47        between the birds and result in ----
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   I was going to ask.  I thought there was
    50        more to it than just ---- 
    51 
    52   MS. STEEL:   Well, obviously if they get too energetic it means 
    53        they are not going to put on weight as fast.
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have that in mind as well.
    56
    57   MS. STEEL:   So it is all a profit motivated reason for denying
    58        the welfare considerations.
    59
    60        Dr. Patteson said that the average mortality rate to 52

Prev Next Index