B.AHE.2102-Bushfire implications for livestock wellbeing

Summary

The 2019-20 summer bushfires devastated south-eastern Australia and caused the death of tens of thousands of livestock. Although most livestock survived, the extent to which they suffered burn wounds, smoke inhalation or immune fitness impacts is not fully understood.

The purpose of this project is to investigate the impacts of bushfires on the health and welfare of livestock in Australia and to suggest mitigation strategies to reduce impacts in future years. The project is a collaboration between Ausvet, University of Sydney (USYD) and the University of Melbourne (UoM).

Objectives

This research considers how bushfires impact on animals, their health and welfare and on the red meat supply chain. The outputs will be:

• synthesis of current understanding of bushfire impacts on livestock (literature review)
• new understanding of how bushfires affect livestock in terms of:
  • pathology
  • immune fitness and association with reproduction and production
  • welfare
  • biosecurity
  • meat quality
• understanding which paddock features are associated with the risk of burning
• identification of mitigation and recovery strategies
• a livestock bushfire preparedness manual for producers.

Benefits to industry

One of the major outputs of this project will be the development of an evidence-based Livestock Bushfire Preparedness Manual for producers. The manual will create a better understanding of what bushfires do to livestock and beef and sheep production systems, and how to prepare and respond. This will be an invaluable tool for producers living in high bushfire areas of Australia.