Day 091 - 17 Feb 95 - Page 10
1 on the 10th April presents no problem at all because there
2 are three days.
3
4 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I suggest you do, in the light of what
5 Mr. Rampton said, allow half a day for the
6 cross-examination of each of your witnesses to start off
7 with anyway when you put them in.
8
9 MS. STEEL: I just wanted to say something else which was that
10 the week of 10th April, we did actually ask for that week
11 not to be in court. There is only, I think it is, two
12 weeks at Easter or something like that. There is a lot of
13 paper work to go through over Easter. Also Dave's son
14 starts his holiday that week.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I know that. I am not going to make a
17 decision on that now. I am not going to talk any more
18 about scheduling for the time being. It is very important
19 to set out your rearing and slaughter and food poisoning
20 witnesses. Let us go back to Dr. Pattison.
21
22 DR. MARK PATTISON, continued.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Before the cross-examination continues,
25 Dr. Pattison, can I ask you two matters: (To the witness):
26 The first may be a matter of no significance. When
27 Dr. Gregory was in the witness box we talked about
28 cockerels being taken for slaughter at 53 days and
29 yesterday we seemed to be talking about 52. What is the
30 right number or does it vary?
31 A. It will vary. The standard practice now is 52 days.
32 But if, for example, there is a weekend, sometimes birds
33 are taken at 51 days, sometimes at 54 days. It really is
34 variable.
35
36 Q. So the 52/53 is the middle of that bracket, is it?
37 A. That is correct.
38
39 Q. The other matter is this, it is the whole business of leg
40 problems or potential leg problems. Presumably, any
41 chicken, be it an egg layer, a chicken scratching around in
42 a traditional farmyard which may lay and then go into the
43 pot later on, do have problems with their legs from time to
44 time?
45 A. That is correct.
46
47 Q. But is leg problem something which is a particular feature
48 with broilers as opposed to layers or -- this is not best
49 chosen phrase -- general purpose chicken?
50 A. It is a feature which is -- it is one of the conditions
51 from which broilers do suffer. They suffer different
52 conditions to egg layers. Egg layers, for example, do live
53 longer. If you are talking about free range egg layers,
54 they can suffer from diseases of older birds which can
55 affect the legs like Mareks disease which is fowl
56 paralysis.
57
58 Q. I am really just talking about prevalence, whether there
59 is, generally speaking, a greater prevalence of leg
60 problems with broilers than with layers or a chicken which
