W.LIV.2003 - In-Flight Environmental Monitoring & Management
Animals may be at risk of environmental quality issues that affect their health and welfare, and, in recent times, there have been some publicised high mortality events and suffering events during live export which are unacceptable.
| Project start date: | 28 February 2019 |
| Project end date: | 31 October 2022 |
| Publication date: | 07 March 2024 |
| Project status: | Terminated |
| Livestock species: | Grain-fed Cattle, Grass-fed Cattle, Sheep, Goat, Lamb |
| Relevant regions: | National, International |
Summary
This project will explore the potential application of technology to identify environmental issues during the transport of livestock. In particular, this project will be focused on the transport of livestock via aircraft, with a focus on the monitoring of ammonia (NH3) levels throughout the export process. The end goal will be that this technology may also be easily applied in a wider context (i.e. for shipboard real time environmental monitoring).
Objectives
The objectives of this project are as follows;
1. to effectively measure atmospheric ammonia and carbon dioxide levels at a reasonable
accuracy throughout a series of at least 15 flights, with cargo including sheep, cattle & goats
2. to record all measured ammonia and carbon dioxide levels, as well as aircraft position details, in particular altitude and speed
3. to configure the system with pre-defined settings for different livestock types
4. to configure real time ammonia and carbon dioxide levels with one or more customisable “safe” levels, including both short term exposure limits (STEL) and time-weighted average (TWA) limits
5. to raise an alert if the ammonia or carbon dioxide levels exceed any of these STEL or TWA levels
6. to communicate the alert information to the aircrew and ground staff.
Key findings
This project was terminated prior to completion and the required objectives were only partially fulfilled. This project lacked an outcome and outputs that were likely to be adopted by stakeholders.
Benefits to industry
The learnings of this project will not benefit the industry as the work was not completed. The delivery of outputs and deliverables was extensively delayed which required contract extensions. The output technology was expected to have limited functionality and did not adequately demonstrate vital connectivity functions.
MLA action
MLA made the decision to terminate the project for a number of reasons not limited to those listed above. There was no evidence or confidence that the project would result in an output that will be adopted by air freight providers or operators.
Future research
There will not be further research in this area in the near future.
More information
| Project manager: | Sharon Dundon |
| Contact email: | reports@mla.com.au |
