V.RDP.2102-JBS Brooklyn animal disease data pilot case study

Summary

The purpose of the JBS Brooklyn animal disease data pilot study was to demonstrate the value of sharing and utilising disease and defect data along the supply chain to improve productivity and profitability. The project was part of the red meat pilot trials for the Rural Research & Development of Profit project Health 4 Wealth.

While many meat processing recording systems are already in place, data collection on disease-related carcase and offal condemnations and feedback of this information to producers varies considerably. The Health 4 Wealth project aims to introduce a standardised and comprehensive approach to data collection of disease-related carcase and offal condemnations and feedback to producers. This will allow producers to monitor disease prevalence in their livestock and make informed decisions to maximise yield outcomes.

Objectives

The objectives of the JBS Brooklyn animal disease data pilot study project were to:

• demonstrate that individual and lot-based animal disease and defect data can be effectively and efficiently transferred to producers
• demonstrate that animal disease and defect data can be correlated to an individual animal where and individual ID is present
• provide animal disease and defect inspection information to producers to help them make better informed decisions regarding on-farm practices to improve livestock/carcase performance
• provide learnings that can be incorporate into the wider Health 4 Wealth project
• provide recommendations that can be incorporated into the NLIS and LDL project plans to further develop these systems in carcase disease and defect data collection and dissemination.

Key findings

JBS already had IT systems in place to collect beef disease and defect data on the slaughter floor in Brooklyn. Through configuration, JBS were able to collect, exclude and map different diseases for sending through to LDL.

With the use of their Pentaho experts, JBS were able to create an interface to move the data from site to their Head Office and out to LDL without any additional work needed by anyone on site. This was an important learning from the project as it demonstrated that some beef plants are already collecting disease and defect data. Under this scenario, modifications are only required to align to the draft Australian National Standard for the Development, Collection and Reporting of Animal Health Data to allow data to be uploaded to LDL.

JBS Brooklyn began including carcase disease and defect data in their Carcase Analysis Reports to producers in January 2020, with release of carcase disease and defect data to producers through the MLA LDL commencing in June 2020.

All producers who participated in the soft launch for carcase and disease data feedback and associated online feedback survey indicated that they would use the animal disease report within LDL to track progress towards controlling or eliminating a disease within their herd.

Benefits to industry

The project has demonstrated proof-of-concept that individual and lot-based carcase disease and defect data can be effectively and efficiently transferred from the abattoir to producers through existing industry infrastructure such as LDL and NLIS.

JBS Southern believes that it helps industry to know the disease and defects in the Australian beef herd. Collecting animal disease and defect data sheds light on geographic distribution of disease, highlighting problems at a regional level.

A key learning from the project was the importance of ease of integration at all levels, including the slaughter floor, plant IT systems and LDL. This is important to facilitate uptake of animal disease and defect data collection and feedback by other plants.

In addition, the processor reporting functions within LDL need to be improved to allow processors to download and manipulate data more easily.

Future research

Review of approximately four months of carcase disease and defect data collected during the project identified inaccuracies, including missing National Vendor Declaration (NVD) serial numbers, Property Identification Codes (PIC), Livestock Production Assurance source and inspector codes, as well as disease
and defect data coding errors. This suggests that carcase and defect data collected on the slaughter floor of an abattoir will need to be periodically audited to ensure it remains accurate.

Additional reports survey participants would like incorporated into LDL include heat mapping of current disease conditions in their region/state, tracking of regional and seasonal trends and benchmarking against other beef producers in their region. They prefer to receive ongoing support through targeted on-line webinars, either focused on a particular region or a particular disease over extension materials, such as flyers or tech tips, or face-to-face workshops including plant tours to see infected or diseased offal.