Day 106 - 23 Mar 95 - Page 18
1 basis.
2
3 It is not very often economic to test each individual to
4 see whether it is ill or not. After all, the testing is
5 quite expensive. So, let us say, if you take a broiler
6 flock, if there is a small proportion of the birds ill, you
7 assume that others are ill or are likely to become ill, and
8 you treat them as a unit.
9
10 Also, as you are aware, you do not feed them individually
11 and, if you are introducing the antibiotic, as it is often
12 the case, by feed or by water, you would not select out
13 individuals, you would just put in the bulk feed and all
14 the individuals would get the dose.
15
16 Q. You mentioned particularly broiler systems. Do you have
17 any concern about the conditions regarding the spread of
18 disease in broiler flocks?
19 A. Well, the nature of the system is such that disease
20 spread within the intensive system is extremely rapid --
21 depending, of course, on the effectivity of the organisms
22 you are talking about, assuming it is an infectious disease
23 -- therefore, the larger the numbers kept in any
24 individual unit, the greater the potential for spread and
25 the larger the number that will become ill or be infected
26 from any specific source of infection.
27
28 Q. What about the actual conditions apart from the volume of
29 the birds, the numbers of the birds?
30 A. Well, it is a function of numbers. A large number of
31 small units well separated will give less potential for
32 spread than a very large number kept in one unit.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: When you make the point about introducing
35 antibiotics in the feed, we are essentially, concerned in
36 this case with chickens cattle and pigs ---
37 A. Yes.
38
39 Q. -- does that apply to the chickens only? If antibiotics
40 were administered to cattle or pigs, is that done in
41 routine feeding or watering, or is it done by treating the
42 animal directly?
43 A. My Lord, pigs will tend to be treated as a herd.
44
45 Q. Yes, but by injection or in feed and water?
46 A. No, very often by feed and water. Cattle, depending on
47 the condition, can be treated as individuals. So, you have
48 a cow with mastitis, a recognisable condition, you might
49 inject -----
50
51 Q. So cows are probably in a different situation to chickens,
52 cattle?
53 A. Not always.
54
55 Q. But in traditional farming would not the same apply as it
56 does in intensive farming? I appreciate the numbers may be
57 very much greater, but if you had a dozen chickens and you
58 saw one or two were infected and, therefore, decided to
59 treat the lot, you would do it by feed and water just the
60 same, would you not?
