Day 109 - 28 Mar 95 - Page 05

     
     1        A.  No, true.
     2
     3   MR. MORRIS:  We are not sure where they are.
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do not worry.  We looked at them yesterday
     6        and I have read them and I have indicated that at the
     7        moment my construction of the regulations is the same as
     8        Mrs. Druce's; because it is to do with intensive farming,
     9        it makes provision, I assume, because with intensive
    10        farming practices it is easy to lose the individual in the
    11        mass, for inspecting livestock, which I take to mean
    12        individual beasts.
    13
    14   MS. STEEL:  That is right.  (To the witness):  Could you say
    15        something about the problems of heat stress in broiler
    16        units?
    17        A.  Yes, well, these are very, very great, and I notice
    18        that in the FAWK Broiler Report it does bring this up as a
    19        very real problem.  It does say that it can be overcome in
    20        modern units, but the older style units are far more at
         risk.  I do remember that Dr. Pattison said that a
    22        surprising number of Sun Valley units have earth floors
    23        which are not even mentioned in the FAWK Report which,
    24        I think, shows that they are quite obsolete, or should be,
    25        should I say, obsolete, and I would think a broiler unit
    26        with an earth floor would be very unlikely to have adequate
    27        ventilation to cope with heat stress.
    28
    29   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are you relating the earth floors also to
    30        heat -- I know of other factors which flooring may be
    31        relevant to?
    32        A.  Not directly, but simply that nobody would build a
    33        unit, I would say, in the last -- I would guess in the last
    34        20 years or certainly 10 years with an earth floor.
    35
    36   Q.   So you are saying that is an indication ---
    37        A.  It is an indication of old-fashioned.
    38
    39   Q.   -- of age and that is an indication in relation to
    40        ventilation?
         A.  Yes.
    42
    43   MS. STEEL:  Is heat stress something that there has been a good
    44        deal of movement on, making conditions better within the
    45        last few years?
    46        A.  I would say that any new building is going to take it
    47        into consideration and ventilation must have proved, so in
    48        that case, yes, I would think so, but still it is the case,
    49        as -- in my book I made a very serious omission, and I
    50        sent, obviously sent it to many people, but I sent it to a 
    51        well-known broiler farmer who is quite often willing to 
    52        speak out against, in fact, against the system that he 
    53        operates.  He said, he criticised my book, so I wrote back
    54        saying:  "I do not object to criticism but I would like to
    55        know the grounds of it".  His main criticism was I had
    56        omitted heat stress which was, in fact, a glaring omission
    57        and his words were -- I remember very distinctly and this
    58        is only, perhaps, four years ago -- he said:  "On any hot
    59        and humid day in this country tens of thousands of broilers
    60        die from heat stress", that is, over the whole board.  I