Developing a National Standard for Pregnancy Testing

Summary

The purpose of this project was to assess the supply and demand characteristics of pregnancy testing services across Australia, investigate the capacity to respond to gaps identified and determine the need for ongoing work in the area.

The project was developed by MLA in response to advice from the Peak Industry Councils' (Cattle Council of Australia, Australian Lot Feeders Association and the Australian Live Exporters Council) on the reported shortcomings in the supply of pregnancy testing services. The work was undertaken as a desk-top study using email, telephone and tele-conference methods and included investigation of methods of manual rectal palpation, B-mode Ultrasound and Blood Collection (Tail vein).

No apparent shortcomings in the supply of pregnancy testing services were reported by either the feedlot or the live export sectors. However, in the northern Australian feeder/ slaughter category an unmet demand for services offering higher levels of competency than currently available was identified.

The report recommended the development of nationally consistent competency-based training for lay providers to address identified unmet demand, improve reproductive and welfare outcomes and capacity to meet industry compliance requirements. It was further recommended that this training should be linked to an accreditation scheme to ensure the ongoing integrity and professionalism of pregnancy test providers.

It is proposed that the results of this study be further examined to produce an industry-appropriate information paper.