Final Repport
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€ final repport Project code: W.LIV.0288 Prepared by: Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia GJ Norman Date published: November 2015 ISBN: 9781741919721 PUBLISHED BY Meat & Livestock Australia Limited Locked Bag 991 NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2059 National livestock export industry sheep, cattle and goat transport performance report 2014 Meat & Livestock Australia acknowledges the matching funds provided by the Australian Government to support the research and development detailed in this publication. This publication is published by Meat & Livestock Australia Limited ABN 39 081 678 364 (MLA). Care is taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this publication. However MLA cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the information or opinions contained in the publication. You should make your own enquiries before making decisions concerning your interests. Reproduction in whole or in part of this publication is prohibited without prior written consent of MLA. National livestock export industry sheep, cattle and goat transport performance report 2014 Executive summary The objective of this project was to summarise the performance of the livestock export industry in terms of mortality levels of sheep, cattle and goats exported by sea and air from Australia during 2014. Industry stakeholders, government, animal welfare groups and the general public have a keen interest in monitoring performance in different sectors of the livestock export trade. This summary report provides the only comprehensive breakdown by ship, species, time of year, load ports and major destinations over the calendar year. The overall mortality rate for sheep during sea transport to all destinations during 2014 was 0.71% (15,899 mortalities in 2.24 million sheep exported). This was slightly higher than the 0.68% mortality rate for 2013. The main port of loading was Fremantle, which exported 1.91 million sheep with a mortality rate of 0.70% (13,360 mortalities), followed by Adelaide exporting 0.27 million sheep with a mortality rate of 0.78% (2.121 mortalities) and Portland which exported 0.06 million sheep with a mortality rate of 0.72% (418 mortalities). The overall mortality rate for cattle exported from Australia in 2014 was 0.12% (1,592 mortalities in 1.28 million cattle exported). This was higher than the mortality rate observed in 2013. The overall mortality rate on voyages to the Middle East/North Africa was 0.36% (384 mortalities in 0.11 million cattle exported), twice the record low of 0.17% experienced in 2013. The overall mortality rate on voyages to South-East Asia was 0.08% (774 mortalities in 1.00 million cattle exported), equalling that which was observed in 2013. The highest overall mortality rate on a regional basis was 0.47% for exports to South-East Europe (254 mortalities in 0.05 million cattle exported), while the lowest overall mortality rate was 0.07% for the three voyages representing Miscellaneous Destinations. There were no mortalities among the 154 goats exported by sea from Australia in 2014. All goats exported by sea during 2014 went to South-East Asia. The graph below shows percentages of sheep, cattle and goats successfully delivered by sea since 1995. Livestock Delivery Rates (%) 1995 - 2014 100.0 Cattle 99.5 99.0 Level below which cattle shipments must be reported 98.5 Sheep 98.0 Level below which sheep/goat shipments must be reported 97.5 Goats 97.0 96.5 96.0 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 For completeness, summary information regarding the 0.04 million sheep, 9,458 cattle and 0.09 million goats exported by air during 2014 has been included in this report. These experienced overall mortality rates of 0.45% (177 mortalities), 0.00% and 0.01% (11 mortalities) respectively. Page 2 of 52 National livestock export industry sheep, cattle and goat transport performance report 2014 Contents 1 BACKGROUND 4 2 PROJECT OBJECTIVES 4 3 METHODOLOGY 4 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 6 4.1 Sheep 6 4.1.1 Performance trend 6 4.1.2 Overview 7 4.1.3 Middle East/North Africa 8 4.2 Cattle 22 4.2.1 Performance trend 22 4.2.2 Overview 23 4.2.3 Middle East/North Africa 24 4.2.4 South-East Asia 27 4.2.5 North-East Asia 31 4.2.6 South-East Europe 34 4.3 Goats 37 4.3.1 Performance trend 37 4.3.2 Overview 38 4.3.3 South-East Asia 38 4.4 Air Transport 39 4.4.1 Air transport of live sheep 39 4.4.2 Air transport of live cattle 40 4.4.3 Air transport of live goats 41 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 42 5.1 Sheep, cattle and goats 42 6 APPENDICES 43 6.1 Appendix 1 – Research update 43 6.1.1 Investigating morbidity and mortality in cattle exported to the Middle East 43 6.1.2 Monitoring and evaluation of the HotStuff model 43 6.1.3 Contingency Planning review 44 6.1.4 Heat load in sheep exported to Middle Eastern feedlots 44 6.1.5 Pinkeye on long haul cattle voyages 45 6.1.6 Further improving the environment on board livestock vessels 45 6.2 Appendix 2 – Federal Department of Agriculture high-mortality investigations 46 6.3 Appendix 3 - Published studies 51 6.4 Appendix 4 - Acknowledgements 52 Page 3 of 52 National livestock export industry sheep, cattle and goat transport performance report 2014 1 Background The live export of sheep, cattle and goats makes a significant contribution to the Australian economy, valued at around $1,500 million in 2014, and provides employment in services that support this industry. The livestock export trade provides important support for the sheep, cattle and goat industries of Australia and is the only market outlet for producers in some areas of the country. This report summarises information about mortalities in sheep, cattle and goats during sea and air transport from Australia. It allows industry, government and others to monitor mortality trends in these sectors. The report also lists relevant published studies and current research related to the industry. The Australian Government Department of Agriculture (DA) also presents mortality data, though in a different format, under “Reports to Parliament’ at their website: http://www.daff.gov.au/biosecurity/export/live-animals/livestock/regulatory-framework/compliance- investigations/investigations-mortalities. It should be noted that the DA mortality figures refer only to voyages for which data was received during the calendar year, in contrast to this current report which refers to data for all voyages which departed during the calendar year. 2 Project objectives The project objectives were to: a) Produce a report which summarises the mortality of sheep, cattle and goats exported from Australia for the 2014 calendar year and provide an informed analysis of mortality trends in the livestock export industry b) Maintain data and expertise to provide analysis and informed comment 3 Methodology The information in this report was obtained from ship Master’s Reports which record livestock mortalities and other information about each voyage, from other tailored shipboard records and “Yellow Books”, which record more detailed information about numbers of livestock mortalities (ports of loading and discharge, and daily mortality by type-age-sex categories over the loading, voyage and discharge phases) than is available from the Master’s Report. The shipboard part of the export process is divided into three distinct phases based on dates and times: load; voyage and discharge. The date and time for the end of loading marks the beginning of the voyage phase. The date and time for the beginning of discharge at the first port of discharge marks the end of the voyage phase and the beginning of the discharge phase. If a ship docks at more than one discharge port, all the mortalities after the beginning of discharge at the first port are included in the discharge phase. Occasionally inordinate periods of time occur between discharge ports or discharge regions. In such cases, where possible, the voyage is split into separate “voyages” to better reflect the actual conditions that occurred for the stock consigned to those destinations. Often ships load at multiple ports during one passage from Australia (split-load voyages). Where analysis involves split-load voyages, the consignments of livestock from each load port have been considered as separate “voyages”. This current report is for all voyages which departed Australia during the calendar year 2014. Information on the number of sheep exported to various destination countries from ports in Australia was sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Information for livestock exported by air was provided by DA. Page 4 of 52 National livestock export industry sheep, cattle and goat transport performance report 2014 In recent years the significant rise in livestock exports to Turkey and the Black Sea caused an imbalance in the Miscellaneous category. A new destination region, South-East Europe, was introduced in 2012 to allow a more meaningful examination of exports to this region. South-East Europe includes ports in Turkey and the Black Sea From 2012 onward, graphs and tables presenting long-term overviews are restricted to a rolling ten- year basis. It is considered that the older data does not reflect the current state of the trade in terms of standards required of industry, ships participating and markets serviced. Readers should be aware that additional mortality information for a particular year may be received after publication of that year’s summary report. Such information will be added to the database and used in subsequent analyses. Therefore, statistics for a particular year may vary slightly in subsequent reports from those originally published.