Investigating the relationship between salmonella – inanition and property of origin

Summary

This report provides a review of current knowledge concerning salmonellosis and inanition as causes of mortality in live export sheep and the potential associations between mortality and farm-level risk factors. Difficulties in investigating farm-level risk factors for mortality in export sheep are described. The report then identifies several activities aimed at developing capacity to monitor, investigate and improve health and welfare outcomes in export sheep. These include the development of an integrated industry approach to ongoing monitoring and surveillance of mortality (and morbidity), methods to investigate inappetence and behaviour in export sheep, vaccination of sheep against Salmonella and the use of a risk framework to identify interventions to minimise risk of inanition and salmonellosis. These approaches incorporate the capacity to monitor and investigate risk factors for salmonella and inanition regardless of the level of the export structure at which they may operate.