Day 091 - 17 Feb 95 - Page 19
1 Q. How big are the breeding flocks?
2 A. Breeding flocks are usually about 25,000 birds.
3
4 Q. So was that one outbreak or was there more than one
5 outbreak?
6 A. There were two outbreaks, two flocks.
7
8 Q. And each time about 4 per cent of the birds?
9 A. That is correct.
10
11 Q. What about birds that were affected that did not die?
12 A. With Marek's disease if the birds get the infection
13 they die. If they do not, they live. The ones that are
14 unaffected do not show any clinical signs.
15
16 Q. Can they not be affected with paralysis without dying?
17 A. Paralysis is part of Marek's disease. They can also
18 get tumours as well. If they get the disease they die. If
19 they do not, they live.
20
21 Q. All of them? None of them ever -- how long would they be
22 suffering from the disease before they died?
23 A. You do not see clinical signs for very long. I think
24 this is really a reflection that tumours in birds do not
25 seem to cause any very marked clinical signs. Maybe like
26 cancer in human beings they start to lose weight and would
27 be ill for maybe about a week before they die.
28
29 Q. When the outbreak of Marek's disease occurred, did you kill
30 the whole flock?
31 A. No.
32
33 Q. What about Newcastle disease, how frequently does that
34 occur?
35 A. Newcastle disease is a notifiable disease to the
36 Ministry of Agriculture. It was the scourge of the poultry
37 industry 30 years ago. Vaccines were introduced for this
38 condition in the early 1970s and since that time the
39 condition has been virtually eradicated. It is still seen
40 in Europe but it is very rare in the UK now.
41
42 Q. When was the last time that you saw an outbreak of that?
43 A. I have not actually seen an outbreak of Newcastle
44 disease since the early 70s.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Have you got to the end of the specific
47 diseases?
48
49 MS. STEEL: The specific ones, yes.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will take our five-minute break now.
52
53 (Short Adjournment)
54
55 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, if we have left diseases -----
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not know whether we have left diseases.
58 We may have reached the end of the list of specific ones, I
59 think.
60
