Day 104 - 15 Mar 95 - Page 57
1 like the Public Health Laboratory Service?
2 A. I do follow them.
3
4 Q. Are you aware of one that achieved some publicity last
5 October in the national press -- I do not know exactly when
6 it was produced -- and it was publicised in the issue of
7 Communication of All Disease Report and it was an official
8 report by the Public Health Laboratory Service and involved
9 the drug resistant strain of Salmonella typhimurium DT104.
10 Are you aware of that report?
11 A. Yes, I am.
12
13 Q. In fact, the researchers concluded that: "The routine use
14 of antibiotics for growth promotion and sickness prevention
15 in farm animals may contribute to the very development of
16 organisms resistant to antibiotics"?
17 A. Yes.
18
19 Q. And that the particular DT104 strain multiplied -- well,
20 the number of cases reported had multiplied something like
21 10 times in the last few years. Are you aware of that?
22 A. Yes.
23
24 Q. What was their concern? Can you explain what their concern
25 was?
26 A. What they said was that the emergence of that strain of
27 organism showing resistance to antibiotics may have been
28 due to the use of antibiotic compounds for animals.
29
30 Q. And that the resistance may have been transferred to
31 humans. What was the concern about what had transferred
32 to humans because it is quite complicated?
33 A. Yes, it is quite complicated and I can answer your
34 questions. I do not think it is appropriate for me give
35 you a lecture on why it is important.
36
37 Q. No I understand that, but just what their concern was?
38
39 MR. RAMPTON: I am not sure, my Lord, it matters what their
40 concern was unless some proposal is -----.
41
42 MR. MORRIS: Mr. Pattison is an expert and he is aware of this
43 report.
44
45 MR. RAMPTON: So what?
46
47 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Ask him whether he has a concern by all
48 means.
49
50 THE WITNESS: To answer that question, obviously we would have a
51 concern about the possibilities of transferable drug
52 resistance which have been in medical reports now for the
53 last 20 years. As each new strain of organism appears and
54 disappears, the concern waxes and wanes, but there is a
55 genuine concern and each individual incident obviously has
56 to be followed through.
57
58 MR. MORRIS: So there is an ongoing concern that the use of
59 antibiotics in animal treatments or growth promotion may be
60 transferring in some way to human ability to resist certain
