Day 098 - 07 Mar 95 - Page 25
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can you put it this way, from your working
3 experience, can you give us any assistance on the extent to
4 which, if at all, antibiotics, such as Virginia Mycin or
5 Avo Parcin, are used in cattle?
6 A. I get the results from the Ministry of Agriculture.
7 Those three there are not familiar to me and there is a
8 list of the ones which they test for. Is that an American
9 document?
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11 MR. MORRIS: No, this is a UK document, McDonald's. So, there
12 is a list of approved antibiotics, is there?
13 A. Yes, remember that they are -- I imagine they are
14 actual trade names.
15
16 Q. Right.
17 A. And the antibiotics they would be screening for is
18 specifically the chemical antibiotics, or the antibiotics
19 chemicals. Chemical names, if you like, appear on the list
20 at opposed to the trade names.
21
22 Q. So, as far as you understand it, antibiotics are regularly
23 used but you cannot identify -----
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25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: He has not said that at all.
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27 MR. MORRIS: Is that the case, antibiotics are regularly used in
28 the raising of cattle but that you do not know ----
29 A. If you are asking me are antibiotics regularly used to
30 promote growth in cattle, I do not know the answer to
31 that. I mean, antibiotics will be used to treat illnesses
32 in cattle as they would in people, and there are withdrawal
33 periods specific to each one to which an animal cannot be
34 presented to slaughter until it has undergone that
35 withdrawal period from the last time it was administered
36 medicine until when it is presented for slaughtered. It is
37 actually against the law to do that.
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39 MS. STEEL: The list that you mentioned, that is just
40 antibiotics, is it?
41 A. Sorry, the list from MAFF?
42
43 Q. Yes.
44 A. No, it covers antibiotics, various other medical or
45 veterinary treatments, hormones, and what they call beta
46 agonists, amongst other things. I cannot honestly remember
47 the whole lot of the criteria they test for.
48
49 Q. The names that are on there are of the things they test
50 for, are they, or are they of the things that are banned,
51 that are not supposed to be found?
52 A. It is both. They have -- hormones are banned and
53 hormones are illegal. You cannot use hormones for growth
54 promotion. Certain other substances are banned as well or
55 at least very restricted, such as beta agonists. The
56 others, no, they are not banned substances. They are
57 substances which are used for veterinary treatments and
58 they all have what call an "MRL" or, I believe that stands
59 for Maximum Residue Limit.
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