National livestock exports mortality summary 2003

Summary

The Australian government, livestock industry (including producers and veterinarians), media, animal welfare groups and the general public have shown a keen interest in the care and welfare of sheep, cattle and goats being exported from Australia.

Each year, the Australian livestock export industry provides a breakdown of how many sheep, cattle and goats were exported, the month that shipments left Australia, and the sea ports where livestock were loaded and unloaded. This includes details of how many animals were safely delivered and how many died along the way, but does not specify the cause of death.

This project summarised the performance of the Australian livestock export industry in 2003. During the year, a shipment of the MV Cormo Express was rejected by Saudi Arabia, leading to the deaths of 5,691 sheep in the 80 days it was on the water. Despite this incident, the total death rate for all sheep exported from Australia was a new record low.

The performance reports provide consistent, comparable data that can be matched against previous years. This acts as a gauge of how the Australian livestock export industry is performing and encourages continued improvement.

Objectives

This project provided data regarding sheep, cattle and goats exported live from Australia by sea, including time of year, age and sex of the animals, and the number that died during export.

The collection of this information has enabled the long-term mapping of the Australian livestock export industry’s overall performance year on year.

Key findings

In 2003:

• There were 4.5 million sheep exported by sea. Of these, 1% died during the voyages if the MV Cormo Express figures are included, or 0.88% if excluded. Either figure is lower than 2002 (1.24%) .
• There were 0.76 million cattle exported by sea. Of these, 0.11% died during the voyages, lower than in 2002 (0.24%).
• There were 52,600 goats exported by sea. Of these, 0.80% died during export, the lowest rate since 1993.

Benefits to industry

Ongoing analysis of the performance of the Australian livestock export industry, especially in areas of key interest such as the welfare of animals, provides valuable data that enables continued improvement in management practices.

MLA action

It is recommended that this project continue to be funded and reported on an annual basis.