Collection of animal welfare indicators on board live export vessels – Report of the Shipboard Animal Welfare Surveillance (SAWS) Committee.

Summary

The Animal Welfare Indicators (AWI) Pilot project for the livestock export industry finished in early 2021 and identified important considerations for monitoring and collection of animal welfare indicator data for feeder and slaughter sheep and cattle, throughout the live export supply chain.

The Shipboard Animal Welfare Surveillance (SAWS) Committee was established in 2020 by the Live Export Program (LEP) to review the results and recommendations of the AWI project and the recently updated Australian Standards for Export of Livestock (ASEL) 3.0 government regulations.

Development and refinement of measurements, data collection and analysis processes into an industry protocol represents the greatest contribution made by the SAWS Committee. An agreed list of measures that could be practically and immediately applied on board vessels and adopted by all exporters to demonstrate the welfare status of animals exported was developed.

The recommendations from the Committee have resulted in industry fast tracking the adoption of many of the proposed animal welfare indicators.

Objectives

The role of the SAWS Committee was to advise industry on relevant animal welfare indicators and their collection methods to address the recommended ASEL 3.0 reporting requirements.

The SAWS Committee aimed to develop an agreed list of measures that could be practically and immediately applied on board vessels and adopted by all exporters to demonstrate the welfare status of animals exported.

Key findings

• The comprehensive SAWS report provides extensive detail on each animal welfare indicator, including the type of indicator, the level at which measurement occurs, the frequency of measurement, the research justification and the measurement process.

The SAWS Committee recommends:

• All indicator data should be collected be stored in the LIVEXCollect database. LIVEXCollect provides information for use in the investigation of an adverse animal welfare event, which enables systematic analyses and creates a body of evidence of satisfactory animal welfare outcomes on livestock voyages. Although, they recommend that LIVEXCollect should continue to be refined to incorporate a mobile application.
• Data should be collected on a limited number of indicators twice per day: panting, general demeanour, sailing conditions and posture from pre-selected pens or decks, rather than every deck once per day.
• For welfare indicators to be of substantial use for industry, there should be a standardisation of livestock classes and more detailed class information is required than the ASEL 3.0 categories. This will enable industry to more easily compare data collected across shipments.
• Training is important for the further development of animal welfare indicators. Comparability in measurements between operators monitoring the indicators (inter-rater repeatability), and repeatability by the same operator (intra-rater repeatability) is essential.

Benefits to industry

By designing well-structured and viable animal welfare indicator protocol, the outcomes from the SAWS Committee should ease the reporting task and also increase the value of the data gathered by Australian Government Accredited Veterinarians and LiveCorp Accredited Stockpersons to reduce inconsistencies.

To date, most of the elements in the protocol have been included in the ASEL 3.0 reporting standards and, as a result, will automatically be adopted by industry. The outcomes of the SAWS Committee demonstrate a progressive and scientific approach to animal welfare in the live export industry.

Future research

Data collected through LIVEXCollect will help to inform industry and the department of the validity and usefulness of the animal welfare measures, ahead of a review of ASEL in 2022.