Day 092 - 27 Feb 95 - Page 10

     
     1        A.  It could be, yes.
     2
     3   Q.   If an animal was extremely stressed, say, at five weeks,
     4        when it was five weeks old, would that show up at the time
     5        when it went for slaughter?
     6        A.  No, not necessarily.
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can you give me an idea?  Can you say that
     9        there must have been -- is there a watershed, if it shows
    10        in the meat after slaughter that the stress must have been
    11        within such a period of slaughter and that stress before
    12        such a period would not show, is there any ---
    13        A.  No.
    14
    15   Q.   -- dividing line?
    16        A.  No.  It depends on the animal and the conditions.  A
    17        short period of stress could be as low as five minutes to,
    18        let us say, three hours, that would cause PSE.  A longer
    19        period of stress, that could go from 24 hours to six hours,
    20        would show as dark meat.   Any animal that has stress three
         months before will not show on the meat, if that is your
    22        question, not necessarily.  You could see some other signs
    23        of stress in the animal such as the hairs of the animal,
    24        the eyes of the animal will tell you, the weight of the
    25        animal will show that.
    26
    27   MS. STEEL:  If it was stressed a week before, would it show?
    28        A.  It depends on the animal, but probably not.  You could
    29        probably not tell the meat and look at it and say that it
    30        was stressed a week before, no.
    31
    32   Q.   Have the rearing conditions of pigs changed in the United
    33        States within the last five or 10 years?
    34        A.  It changes every day.
    35
    36   Q.   So have there been improvements to welfare and things like
    37        that?
    38        A.  Yes, there have.
    39
    40   Q.   There have.  What are the improvements that have been made?
         A.  Mostly in the area of controlled diseases, in the area
    42        of genetics and in the area of environment as well as
    43        nutrition.
    44
    45   Q.   When you say about environment, can you give us some
    46        examples of that?
    47        A.  In some areas, for instance, where there is heat is a
    48        problem they use sprinklers or foggers, so that the animals
    49        have some water and lose some of the heat with use of the
    50        water. 
    51 
    52   Q.   That is while they are being reared, is it? 
    53        A.  Yes.
    54
    55   Q.   How long has that been in place?
    56        A.  That depends on the farmer, but it has been available,
    57        let us say, for the last 10 years.
    58
    59   Q.   What other improvements are there?
    60        A.  On the area related to the environment, it is the