Day 019 - 27 Jul 94 - Page 09
1 Q. I think there have been concerns expressed over botulism;
is that right?
2 A. Certainly. If there is a dead chicken in the environment/index.html">litter
and the conditions are such that it is what is called
3 anaerobic, that means it has no oxygen, clostridia can
grow and even proliferate. Clostridial spores will
4 survive, even when there is oxygen. So if that chicken
carcass went into an animal feed and it then went into an
5 environment where there was no oxygen, you could get
clostridial proliferation. It depends on the
6 circumstances as to whether a dairy cow if, say, it is
eating the environment/index.html">litter, environment/index.html">litter based material, is actually
7 going to develop symptoms. It has certainly been a
concern in some sectors.
8
Q. Is it fairly inevitable that chickens will be found in the
9 environment/index.html">litter?
A. I think it is quite likely -- dead chickens, you
10 mean?
11 Q. Yes.
A. Yes.
12
Q. Do you know whether that includes Sun Valley?
13 A. No. I do not know whether that does include Sun
Valley, but I would add one comment: In the context of
14 Sun Valley, when I walked the shed to inspect the birds,
I did not see one dead bird during my excursion.
15
Q. You went at the later stages of the chicken's development?
16 A. I went at 41 days, when the females and males were 41
days of age.
17
Q. So young chicks that died could have been covered over by
18 then?
A. That is possible.
19
MR. JUSTICE BELL: How deep is the environment/index.html">litter when it is laid if it
20 is wood shavings?
A. It varies. Obviously it can be six to nine inches,
21 then it gets compacted a bit, it sorts itself out, then it
would start rising again as the manure components
22 increases.
23 MS. STEEL: When we say something is likely in the industry,
for example, the dead chicks in the environment/index.html">litter, should we
24 assume that it is going to be likely to be the same as for
Sun Valley unless they have extra special methods -- well,
25 different, extremely different methods to the rest of the
industry?
26 A. The efficiency of recovery of dead animals from the
environment/index.html">litter is going to be dependent upon the time and the
27 efficiency of the stockman. It is the time available to
inspect the shed to identify the birds and the motivation
28 and efficiency of the man or woman to pick the birds up
and take them out. That is a variable which is very
29 difficult to say that one company is better than another.
I would say that it could well be a lot of variation
30 within companies between stock people. So it is very
difficult to make a generalisation.
