Quality assurance for live goats exports to Saudi Arabia

Summary

There is a small but significant market opportunity for live goat exports to Saudi Arabia. However, it is important that a fledgling live goat export trade does not put the Saudi live sheep trade at risk. This project involved close observation of 12,773 goats in four commercial shipments exported to Saudi Arabia in January to March 2001. The aim was to adapt the SLEPP quality assurance program to ensure industry, government and customer requirements were met with the commercial export of live goats to Saudi Arabia. The four trial shipments demonstrated that large numbers of young goats can be exported to Saudi Arabia and delivered in accordance Saudi requirements.

There was not a single case of scabby mouth detected at sea in any of the trial shipments. It seems that the risk of scabby mouth is very low and there may be scope to streamline pre-export vaccination procedures for goats. Most of the goats in the trial shipments were feral goats that entered the export system without going through a prior domestication program. Adaptation and stress-related diseases were a serious concern after arrival at the export feedlot, with goats not eating, dehydration and clinical salmonellosis apparent. The light body weight and limited fat reserves on young goats made them particularly vulnerable if they did not eat or drink for a few days. The transition from feral to domestic life was the weakest link in the export chain. Minimum standards for the domestication of feral goats are urgently needed. Mortalities at sea were slightly lower than for goats exported to other Middle East destinations. However, a voyage mortality rate of 2.0% to arrival at the port of discharge was still too high. The main causes of death at sea were inanition and salmonellosis. More work is needed to establish best practice management procedures. The highest priorities are to further investigate feeding practices and management to minimise dominance behaviour.