W.LIV.2024 - The Live Export Industry Annual Transport Mortality Report 2020

Summary

The National livestock export industry annual transport performance report summarises the performance of the livestock export industry in terms of mortality levels of sheep, cattle and goats exported by sea and air from Australia. Industry stakeholders, government, animal welfare groups and the general public have a keen interest in monitoring performance in different sectors of the livestock export trade. This report provides the only comprehensive breakdown by mode of transport (ship or air), species, time of year, load ports and major destinations over the calendar year. Greg Norman has been producing a high-quality report on time for a number of years on behalf of the industry. This is the final report of this nature as LIVEX Collect will begin automated reporting. This project will ensure there are no gaps in the 2020 data.

Objectives

• Produce a report which summarises the mortality of sheep, cattle and goats exported from Australia for the 2020 calendar year and provide an informed analysis of mortality trends in the livestock export industry.
• Maintain data and expertise to provide analysis and informed comment.

Key findings

This report successfully summarises the mortalities of sheep, cattle and goats exported live for the 2020 calendar year. Mortality trends were analysed and the overall mortalities for sheep and cattle exported by sea were shown to be 0.224% and 0.106% respectively, while overall mortalities for sheep, cattle and goats exported by air were 0.009%, 0.016% and 0.012% respectively. No goats were exported by sea in 2020.

Benefits to industry

This is the only comprehensive report of its type, providing breakdowns by ship, species, time of year, load ports and major destinations over the calendar year for both shipboard and air exports, as well as summary analyses of trends over time.

MLA action

Publishing of the final report on the MLA R&D website.

Future research

• It is recommended that expression of results move from rates (mortality/loaded) to median values, with comparisons made to standardised measures of performance in the trade for classes of animal, time of year, destination, etc. This use of standardised rates is intended to further clarify trends over time.
• It is recommended that the list of DA mortality investigations be replaced by the one reference. Previously documented comparisons over time (year on year, region to region) have been disrupted by the 2018 Middle East export restrictions. It is recommended that these comparisons be made again in the future when enough data describing the new export timeframes has been gathered to allow meaningful results.