Day 089 - 15 Feb 95 - Page 68


     
     1        get the round what is actually happening.  It is only part
     2        of a much larger equation.  If you take the meat off a
     3        chicken which has salmonella in its intestine, that meat
     4        will not necessarily become contaminated with salmonella,
     5        as I understand it.  It is only if there is some leakage
     6        from the gut which comes into contamination with the meat?
     7        A.  That is correct.
     8
     9   Q.   If you put the deboned meat of 100 broilers in one
    10        container, when it went in less than 1 per cent of the meat
    11        would, therefore, be contaminated with salmonella.  Suppose
    12        only one in 10 birds there was some kind of rupture which
    13        allowed contamination of its meat, you would have .1 per
    14        cent of the meat going into that container would be
    15        contaminated with salmonella.  But it is this handling by
    16        human agents by hand which takes that up to 25 per cent, is
    17        it?
    18        A.  That is what we believe, yes.
    19
    20   Q.   So in that instance, my example, it would be increased 250
    21        times?
    22        A.  Yes.
    23
    24   Q.   The proportion of meat?
    25        A.  That is correct.
    26
    27   Q.   I do not know that it is one in 10 that there is some
    28        rupture, but just to take that so I understand what has
    29        happened.
    30        A.  Yes, that is correct.
    31
    32   MR. RAMPTON:  I ought also to ask you this, and I am grateful
    33        for that because it leads to this.  Leaving aside the
    34        presence of salmonella in the gut, are there other sources
    35        of contamination on a bird or in a bird when it is brought
    36        into the factory?
    37        A.  There is a possibility that we know that salmonella can
    38        exist in the dust in poultry houses, and when birds come
    39        into the factory it is possible that they can carry
    40        salmonella on their feathers and on the outside of the body
    41        surface.  This is a more difficult thing to test, but I am
    42        assuming that some could come in that way.
    43
    44   Q.   Presently as matters stand, what is the principal defence
    45        against illness by salmonella poisoning for humans?
    46        A.  Well, the prevention, to prevent it happening in the
    47        first place food must be cooked and handled correctly.  The
    48        condition is not normally treated with antibiotics in
    49        humans.
    50 
    51   Q.   No.  I meant how do you avoid getting food poisoning from 
    52        salmonella assuming it is in the product? 
    53        A.  If it is in the product you have to have a discipline
    54        of handling raw meat and cooked meat separately using
    55        separate utensils and separate areas to do it, and you must
    56        cook the raw meat or whatever product it is correctly.
    57
    58   Q.   So long as it is not possible to eliminate salmonella from
    59        raw chicken meat, if I take a piece of raw product from Sun
    60        Valley which has come from birds where there is 1 per cent

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