Day 113 - 03 Apr 95 - Page 27
1 had it in the calves recently with serotype, phagetype
2 actually, 204.
3
4 Now what we are getting is something happening in cattle,
5 again older cattle, another multiresistant organism which
6 is causing lot of problems, and that is another salmonella
7 typhimurium, which is No. DT 104. These are signs of
8 marketing, mixing animals and giving them stresses like,
9 imposing stresses on them like marketing and transport,
10 that they spread these diseases.
11
12 In the 1960s, the Public Health Laboratory Service was so
13 concerned about this that they brought in recommendations
14 that were put forth by what was called the Swan Committee
15 which actually reported in probably 1969 or 1970. Various
16 restrictions -- they tried to place various restrictions on
17 the misuse of antibiotics in farming. Those were mostly
18 circumvented, but now we have still got the same old
19 problem recurring but with slightly different forms of
20 bacteria. Those are, I would say, indicators of undue
21 stress and bad husbandry.
22
23 Q. I was going to come on to sort of diseases and possible
24 transmissibility when you have dealt with the general
25 welfare matters. I think we have dealt with markets. In
26 transport, are there any concerns about the physical
27 vibrations or bumpiness or whatever of being in a lorry,
28 confined in a lorry?
29 A. Yes. You think about animals falling -- as I have
30 said, cattle tend to stand up. Now a cattle animal that is
31 content and happy will normally lie down and cud. If it is
32 not cudding for a large part of the time, you have a
33 welfare problem; you wonder why. So, one thinks that they
34 are apprehensive. There is, obviously, if they fall down
35 they hurt one another, and there is a question of how tight
36 you should pack them in because, in a way, if they are
37 fairly tight, they hold one another up. But, on the other
38 hand, if they are very tight there is a welfare problem if
39 one goes down.
40
41 In two tier lorries -- some of the animals go in two tier
42 lorries, the smaller animals -- you get excreta coming from
43 up the top in the old-fashion type of vehicle which would
44 affect those down below. You also have to think of the
45 temperature. If the journey is a long one, on a very hot
46 day, the animals are producing a lot of heat and a lot of
47 moisture. You have to think of the vehicles and the design
48 of the vehicles, as to whether they are adequately
49 ventilated and whether the temperature control is adequate.
50
51 So, in a good, well-run system, one should have a recorder
52 like a tachograph on the lorry to see how long it has been
53 on the journey, what the humidity and the temperature is
54 where the animals are. A lorry nowadays should have,
55 instead of the ramps, it should have a sort of forklift ---
56
57 Q. Hydraulic?
58 A. -- hydraulic platform so that the animals can be lifted
59 up and down without them going up slopes. Also, where the
60 vehicles dock which is not all that -----
