Day 089 - 15 Feb 95 - Page 31
1 death from other causes?
2 A. Yes, that is correct.
3
4 Q. Just so that we have it, I think I remember it correctly,
5 the 42 day old birds are the females?
6 A. That is correct.
7
8 Q. The ones that wait on are the males?
9 A. That is right.
10
11 Q. Just one further question about culling, whose decision is
12 it that a bird needs to be culled?
13 A. The decision rests entirely with the stockmen on the
14 farm.
15
16 Q. Does that require training or experience?
17 A. It does require training and experience. The area
18 managers that I referred to earlier would be involved in
19 helping a stockman on the farm to make a decision about
20 whether a bird should be culled.
21
22 Q. Finally on this topic, how often, so far as you know, does
23 it happen that a bird which has died in a shed is missed by
24 the stockman and is left there until the shed is cleared at
25 the end of the growing period?
26 A. It is very unlikely that that should happen. It is
27 very much part of a stockman's duty to walk the sheds
28 several times a day and pick up any dead birds. We are
29 obviously very aware of the dangers of leaving carcasses in
30 poultry environment/index.html">litter, and so the people have been told that it is
31 a dangerous practice to do that and it is just not
32 acceptable to do it.
33
34 Q. Dangerous for whom?
35 A. The dangers have become apparent over the last few
36 years where poultry environment/index.html">litter has been -- the normal practice
37 is to use poultry environment/index.html">litter as a fertilizer to spread it on
38 the land; if carcasses are allowed to decompose in the
39 environment/index.html">litter, they can produce an organism which produces
40 botulism, and if the cattle graze on the land they can pick
41 up botulism from that source. So, obviously, we want to do
42 everything to avoid that happening.
43
44 Q. Is that a form of botulism in the cattle which can be
45 transmitted to humans?
46 A. No, it is not.
47
48 Q. But it will not do the cattle any good?
49 A. Well, it will kill the cattle.
50
51 Q. Yes, quite. So far as the other chickens in the shed are
52 concerned, does the presence of a dead body constitute any
53 hazard for that?
54 A. It obviously constitutes a health hazard to the
55 chickens. They are inquisitive by nature. They will peck
56 at carcasses and if the bird has died from an infectious
57 cause we, obviously, would want to discourage that.
58
59 Q. Dr. Gregory measured, I think he measured or he said, that
60 the level of lighting in the sheds is about 80 lux; is that
