Day 289 - 29 Oct 96 - Page 08

     
     1        showing him round the unit, and I would say that that is
     2        another pointer to what I was saying earlier about how it
     3        is easy to, kind of, clean things up before an inspection
     4        takes place so that the people making the inspection don't
     5        actually get the typical picture.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.
     8
     9   MS. STEEL:   Moving on to leg weakness, which I did cover
    10        yesterday, but I just wanted to go over a few points in the
    11        evidence of Dr. Gregory.  Dr. Gregory confirmed that there
    12        were breeds available which did not suffer from the same
    13        levels of leg weaknesses as the typical broiler chicken and
    14        that leg weakness was not something that was inevitable in
    15        chickens.  There is the Kestin study that came with Dr.
    16        Gregory's report, tab J, and there was one line of chickens
    17        in the study which he believed there had been no selection
    18        pressure over the past ten years and their walking ability
    19        was perfect for that particular line or strain of chicken.
    20        That was on day 19, page 31, line 20.
    21
    22        The note that I have next about the fact that birds in the
    23        study were heavier than the Sun Valley Poultry birds, that
    24        was day 19, page 32, line 7, I have just made a note of
    25        that because I do remember, I think during examination
    26        in-chief, that the impression given was that the birds at
    27        Sun Valley were not as badly affected as when compared to
    28        the other birds that were in the study and, obviously,
    29        there is evidence, if you read through that part of the
    30        transcript, that the fact that the birds at Sun Valley were
    31        much lighter would mean that they were less likely to
    32        suffer the same level of leg problems at that stage.
    33
    34   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Just pause a moment.
    35
    36   MS. STEEL:   I do not know if I have explained that very well.
    37        (Pause).
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You are saying that was just a matter of age,
    40        was it?
    41
    42   MS. STEEL:   Yes, that is what I am trying to say, that it is
    43        not because the birds at Sun Valley are a lighter breed,
    44        but because of the time at which the measurements or the
    45        tests were taken, the birds were at an earlier stage of
    46        development than the other birds in the study.  So it is
    47        not really -- I mean, the point is that it is not comparing
    48        like with like, that is all.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes. 
    51 
    52   MS. STEEL:   And that should be borne in mind when looking at 
    53        the results.
    54
    55        On top of the point about the fact that there was a line of
    56        chickens whose walking ability was perfect because there
    57        had not been selection pressure on them over the past ten
    58        years, the other point was that even the commercial broiler
    59        breeds, if they had access to outdoor facilities and
    60        movement, came out with less leg weakness problems.  That