National livestock export industry shipboard performance report 2011

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 or airports 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 2011. One shipment that returned to an Australian port after 10 days at sea is not included in the report. The mortality rate for the 67,000 sheep on board was 0.45%.

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 and air, 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 2011:

• There were 2.42 million sheep exported by sea. Of these, 0.76% died during the voyages, which was lower than 2010 (0.88%) , and second only to the record low of 0.75% in 2004.
• There were 0.68 million cattle exported by sea. Of these, 0.12% died during the voyages, which was lower than in 2010 (0.15%). There were no deaths on 38% of all cattle voyages.
• There were 51,487 goats exported by air. There were 0.002% mortalities (one animal), which is less than the rate of 0.010% in 2010.
• There were 610 goats exported by sea. Of these, 0.16% died during the single voyage, the lowest figure since recording began in 1993, and significantly lower than the rate of 0.69% in 2010.

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.