Day 092 - 27 Feb 95 - Page 62


     
     1   MS. STEEL:   How often do farmers check for dead and injured
     2        birds?
     3        A.  Sorry, I did not hear?
     4
     5   Q.   How often do farmers check for dead and injured birds?
     6        A.  Every day, several times during the day.
     7
     8   Q.   I forgot to ask a question.  At the hatcheries you said
     9        that the chickens were sprayed with a vaccination?
    10        A.  Yes.
    11
    12   Q.   What is the vaccination?
    13        A.  It is a mixture of different vaccines, primarily to
    14        control respiratory diseases and Newcastle.
    15
    16   Q.   What are the diseases apart from Newcastle disease?
    17        A.  That are in that particular cocktail, I do not know.
    18        It changes with the different locations and the presence of
    19        that particular disease in that particular area, which one
    20        I remember it was a cocktail of vaccinations that had
    21        Newcastle.
    22
    23   Q.   So, apart from that, you do not know?
    24        A.  I do not know what we are currently using, no.
    25
    26   Q.   You said that apart from the risk of hatcheries, the other
    27        main area of concern, as far as bringing in disease, is
    28        food.  Why is that?
    29        A.  Bring in diseases?
    30
    31   Q.   Yes.
    32        A.  Why is that a concern?
    33
    34   Q.   Well, you said the biggest risk of disease is from the
    35        hatcheries and the other area of concern is the food.
    36        A.  Yes.
    37
    38   Q.   So why is that the other main area of concern?
    39        A.  Really the main area of concern is anything that goes
    40        into the house.  There are two things that go there: one is
    41        chicks when they arrive and the other is the feed.  The
    42        feed is subjected to steam, heat treatment which kills the
    43        bacteria. The other only possible is the environment in
    44        through the air or birds, small birds that if you have a
    45        hole can get into the house and carry a lot of diseases.
    46
    47   Q.   So the mesh that is there, that is not big enough for, say,
    48        a sparrow to get through?
    49        A.  No, definitely not.
    50 
    51   Q.   How big would it be then? 
    52        A.  It will be similar, probably if you can see the screen 
    53        door it will be about that.
    54
    55   Q.   So really tiny holes?
    56        A.  Yes.
    57
    58   Q.   What is in the food?
    59        A.  It is mostly corn.  It depends on the least-cost
    60        formula what is available.  It could have soyabeans.  It

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