Day 113 - 03 Apr 95 - Page 42
1 pretty well is that that was a result of feeding, in
2 effect, sheep offal, sheep remains, in the concentrate
3 feeds particularly for the dairy beef animals. It caused
4 -- it is causing a great deal of stress in the flock, in
5 the herd. It is still going on at a great rate.
6
7 Q. So that was a widespread practice, was it?
8 A. It was a widespread practice to feed animal remains.
9 It has been for a long time. In 1988, I think it was in
10 July 1988, because BSE was developing, it was a new
11 phenomenon which was not recognised at the beginning, it
12 was confused with listeriosis and staggers of one sort or
13 another, metabolic diseases.
14
15 In 1988, the Ministry forebade the feeding of certain
16 offals which are associated with the nervous system,
17 forebade the feeding of those offals from ruminant animals
18 to other ruminants. Those are what called the proscribed
19 offals. From that time on that system in the carcass had to
20 be separated and kept very severely separate and destroyed
21 so it should not be fed back.
22
23 In 1989, that proscription was extended to other animal
24 feeds, feeds to other animals apart from cattle. Up to
25 that time animals had been going down with BSE, they had
26 not found the cause of it. In fact, it was found when
27 quite a number of animals got to slaughterhouses actually
28 having this problem, and they were generally dairy beef
29 cows, and they were -- about 40 of them had got as far as
30 the slaughterhouse -----
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do we need to go into this in any detail?
33 The effect of Dr. Long's evidence is that feeding offal of
34 one species to another, he says, led to BSE.
35
36 MR. MORRIS: Cows are naturally herbivors, are they?
37 A. Yes. Sorry, I cannot hear.
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is probably just as well, I think. I will
40 accept that cows are herbivors, and so on that point you
41 are successful. Just collect your thoughts for a moment.
42 See if there is anything else before you go on to slaughter
43 of cattle. It is not an encouragement to you, but it looks
44 as if you are not or may well not finish Dr. Long in-chief
45 this afternoon, so you can think overnight of anything you
46 have missed.
47
48 MR. MORRIS: Yes, thank you. (To the witness): Let us deal
49 with cattle slaughter: You have mentioned about transport,
50 you have mentioned about loading and unloading. We have
51 heard that both slaughterhouses that have given evidence
52 for McDonald's use goads, so we do not need to go into
53 that. Apart from those things, can you describe your
54 welfare concerns as cattle arrive off the ramp into the
55 slaughterhouse?
56 A. Could I just take up ---
57
58 Q. A typical ----
59 A. Yes -- an issue -- you have raised welfare -- an issue
60 from the farm or the market to the slaughterhouse. A
