Day 090 - 16 Feb 95 - Page 47
1 can occur or does occur but how often, because one can have
2 an adverse situation of almost any kind now and again. Do
3 you want to ask about that or shall I? You ask if -----
4
5 MS. STEEL: Yes, I will ask. (To the witness): What percentage
6 of birds would have been affected by that, by the breast
7 blisters?
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you want to start with capping happening
10 at all, how often does that happen?
11 A. I mean, it is just an impossible question to answer.
12
13 Q. I can imagine that might be so, but, I mean, might it
14 happen once a year in each shed, or just give me an idea?
15 A. Well, I think if you are looking across 550 units, you
16 are talking about something which can happen to a very
17 variable degree, it may be a very minor or it could be more
18 serious. If it is minor capping, it would normally be
19 handled by management, local management, and just the
20 problem will be sorted out.
21
22 MS. STEEL: So you would not necessarily know about it?
23 A. I would not necessarily know about it.
24
25 Q. What about major incidents of capping?
26 A. Well, again, I mean, that would not be reported to me.
27 That is part of the farm manager's job to deal with that
28 situation, but I have to say that I think it is pretty
29 rare.
30
31 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But what are minor and major capping? I
32 mean, is minor capping just a small area and major a big
33 area, or is minor happening once a year and major happening
34 once a month?
35 A. Just to give you a picture, the minor capping,
36 I assume, would be an area of perhaps two or three feet
37 square which might be near an air inlet which is drawing in
38 damp air on to the environment/index.html">litter, and can be very readily sorted
39 out.
40
41 Major capping could occur if there was a drinker flood.
42 Supposing a bell drinker came off during the night and
43 there was a flood in the house, you could have an area,
44 maybe, of 15 feet by 10 feet all around that drinker where
45 the environment/index.html">litter has become swamped with water?
46
47 Q. But that would count as a major?
48 A. That would be a major incident, yes.
49
50 Q. Then how often as a result do you get -- if you have got
51 poor ventilation, is that a minor area or a major area?
52 A. That would usually be a minor one which can be dealt
53 with relatively easily.
54
55 Q. How often do you get Hock Burn, breast blisters or
56 ulcerated feet which you would attribute to capping?
57 A. Well, ulcerated feet and breast blisters are indicative
58 of poor management, and I would say that we see that hardly
59 at all. Hock Burn is more common to varying degrees. You
60 do have a proportion of birds, anything up to 10 per cent
