Day 089 - 15 Feb 95 - Page 33
1 to do any detailed work in the house, then he very often
2 will turn the lights up.
3
4 MR. RAMPTON: The periods of 20, 30 minutes, I think -- did you
5 say 20 or 30 minutes?
6 A. Yes.
7
8 Q. What is the basis for that sort of period of darkness
9 during the course of 24 hours?
10 A. The important thing is to make birds accustomed to
11 darkness. In the event of a power failure or any other
12 accident, then it is important that they are used to it and
13 accustomed to otherwise they could panic.
14
15 Q. You have that MAFF document still, have you?
16 A. Yes.
17
18 Q. Can you turn back to paragraph 29 on page 7, the right-hand
19 page? At top of the page it says "Lighting", do you see
20 that?
21 A. Yes.
22
23 Q. "Provision should be made for a period of darkness in each
24 24 hour cycle. Where birds do not have access to daylight
25 they should be given at least eight hours lighting per
26 day". There is no specification there about the length of
27 the period, is there?
28 A. No, and it is actually something that the industry are
29 doing quite a lot of work on different light patterns at
30 the moment, alternating light with darkness, to see if they
31 can improve leg strength, leg activity and, therefore,
32 reduce the number of leg abnormalities that occur.
33
34 Q. Do you have the kingfisher blue file still there near you?
35 Defendants Supplementary List of Documents, bundle II, the
36 one that had the FAWC recommendations in it, tab 27?
37 A. Yes.
38
39 Q. Page 13 of the document?
40 A. Yes.
41
42 Q. Paragraph just below the middle of the page headed "Light"
43 at (d) and then 35, do you have that?
44 A. Yes.
45
46 Q. "Intensively reared broilers are usually kept in artificial
47 light except for a short period of darkness of about 20 or
48 30 minutes each day. This period ensures that the birds
49 become used to total darkness preventing panic in the event
50 of power failure and assisting with the biological
51 development of diurnal rhythm". Then this next passage is
52 underlined: "The Council supports this practice and
53 recommends a regulation to require that all birds be
54 provided with a period of darkness in every 24 hours. We
55 suggest this period should be at least 30 minutes". Can I
56 ask, why is that sentence underlined?
57 A. I think the reason is that the Council felt that it was
58 a very unnatural thing for birds to be exposed to 24 hours
59 light. In other words, not to have any darkness
60 whatsoever. I think I would definitely agree that that is
