Day 090 - 16 Feb 95 - Page 57


     
     1        so affected animals should not have got into the food chain
     2        because they would have died.
     3
     4   Q.   But if they got into the food chain, it would be
     5        transmissible to humans if the meat was not cooked
     6        properly?
     7        A.  Yes, clostridium is quite a complex condition and there
     8        are many different strains of the organism which produce
     9        different strains of toxin.  Some toxins are more or less
    10        dangerous to man but, as a general principle, clostridium
    11        is a food poisoning organism and is a potential hazard and,
    12        therefore, meat should always be cooked properly.
    13
    14   Q.   What characteristics do you select your chickens for?
    15        Sorry, I am actually moving on to something else.
    16        A.  OK.  We do not carry out any breeding of chickens
    17        ourselves.  We buy our breeding stock from primary breeding
    18        companies so we do not actually carry out any specific
    19        selection of our own at all.
    20
    21   Q.   But, presumably, the companies could supply you with
    22        different sorts of chickens?
    23        A.  No, there are not really very many available.  Ross,
    24        I think, have two different breeds of available.  Cobb just
    25        have the one breed available.
    26
    27   Q.   Are you saying that those are the only chickens it is
    28        possible to get in this country?
    29        A.  They are only chickens you can obtain in any numbers,
    30        that is correct.
    31
    32   Q.   They are the only chickens that the broiler industry is
    33        interested in at the moment?
    34        A.  That is correct.
    35
    36   Q.   Have you put any suggestions to the breeders about what
    37        they could do?
    38        A.  We have constant reviews with breeding companies as to
    39        how their birds are performing in our conditions.  So, we
    40        review everything from growth rate, mortality, carcass
    41        conformation, all these things -- all the data on this is
    42        routinely fed back and reviewed with the breeding
    43        companies.
    44
    45   Q.   Sorry, what is carcass conformation?
    46        A.  It is just the appearance -- the conformation of the
    47        bird is really the shape of the bird.
    48
    49   MR. RAMPTON:  Conformation?
    50        A.  Conformation. 
    51 
    52   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes. 
    53
    54   MS. STEEL:  Have you made any suggestions to them about how they
    55        could improve on breeds?
    56        A.  Well, we do by the analysis of our results, it is
    57        apparent whether the breed is fulfilling our expectations
    58        and fulfilling their expectations.  Breeding programmes are
    59        long-term.  Any change that you make to a breeding
    60        programme will not affect the final progeny for the next

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