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Executive summary
The objective of this project was to summarise the performance of the livestock export industry in terms of mortality levels of sheep, cattle and goats exported by sea and air from Australia during 2015.
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 summary report
provides the only comprehensive breakdown by species, time of year, ships, load ports and major destinations over the calendar year, along with summary analyses of trends over time.
The overall mortality rate for sheep during sea transport to all destinations during 2015 was 0.62 12,560 mortalities in 2.01 million sheep exported. This was well below the 0.71 mortality rate for
2014 and represents a new record low. The main port of loading was Fremantle, which exported 1.80 million sheep with a mortality rate of 0.63 11,256 mortalities, followed by Adelaide exporting 0.18
million sheep with a mortality rate of 0.60 1,048 mortalities and Portland which exported 0.04 million sheep with a mortality rate of 0.61 256 mortalities.
The overall mortality rate for the record 1.31 million cattle exported from Australia in 2015 was 0.10 1,355 mortalities. This was well below the mortality rate of 0.12 observed in 2014. The overall
mortality rates on voyages to the Middle EastNorth Africa and North-East Asia were 0.25 252 mortalities in 0.10 million cattle exported and 0.08 81 mortalities in 0.1 million cattle exported
respectively. The overall mortality rate on voyages to South-East Asia was 0.08 804 mortalities in 1.07 million cattle exported, equalling that which was observed in 2014. The highest overall mortality
rate on a regional basis was 0.53, again for exports to South-East Europe 215 mortalities in 0.04 million cattle exported, while the lowest overall mortality rate was 0.07 for the three voyages
representing Miscellaneous Destinations 3 mortalities in 4,500 cattle exported.
There were no mortalities among the 1,000 goats exported by sea from Australia in 2015. All goats exported by sea during 2015 went to South-East Asia.
Percentages of sheep, cattle and goats successfully delivered by sea since 1995 are shown below.
96.0 96.5
97.0 97.5
98.0 98.5
99.0 99.5
100.0
95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
P er
cen t
Year
Livestock Delivery Rates 1995 - 2015
Cattle
Sheep
Goats Level below which sheepgoat
shipments must be reported
Level below which cattle shipments must be reported
For completeness, summary information regarding the 56,945 sheep, 11,315 cattle and 86,925 goats exported by air during 2015 has also been included in this report. These experienced overall mortality
rates of 0.24 137 mortalities, 0.02 2 mortalities and 0.09 74 mortalities respectively.
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Contents
1 BACKGROUND
4 2
PROJECT OBJECTIVES 4
3 METHODOLOGY
4 4
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 6
4.1 Sheep 6
4.1.1 Performance trend 6
4.1.2 Overview 7
4.1.3 Middle EastNorth Africa 8
4.2 Cattle 22
4.2.1 Performance trend 22
4.2.2 Overview 23
4.2.3 Middle EastNorth Africa 24
4.2.4 South-East Asia 27
4.2.5 North-East Asia 31
4.2.6 South-East Europe 34
4.3 Goats 37
4.3.1 Performance trend 37
4.3.2 Overview 38
4.3.3 South-East Asia 38
4.4 Air Transport 39
4.4.1 Air transport of live sheep 39
4.4.2 Air transport of live cattle 40
4.4.3 Air transport of live goats 41
5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
42 5.1 Sheep, cattle and goats
42 6
APPENDICES 43
6.1 Appendix 1 – Research update 43
6.1.1 Investigating morbidity and mortality in cattle exported to the Middle East 43
6.1.2 Monitoring and evaluation of the HotStuff model 43
6.1.3 Heat load in sheep exported to Middle Eastern feedlots 44
6.1.4 Pinkeye on long haul cattle voyages 45
6.1.5 Further improving the environment on board livestock vessels 45
6.1.6 Stockman’s manual for exporting livestock by air. 45
6.2 Appendix 2 – Federal Department of Agriculture high-mortality investigations 46
6.3 Appendix 3 - Published studies 50
6.4 Appendix 4 - Acknowledgements 51
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1 Background
The live export of sheep, cattle and goats makes a significant contribution to the Australian economy, valued at around 1,500 million in 2015, and provides employment in the many services that support
this industry. The livestock export trade provides important support for the sheep, cattle and goat industries of Australia and is the only market outlet for producers in some areas of the country.
This report summarises information about mortalities in sheep, cattle and goats during sea and air transport from Australia. It allows industry, government and other interested parties to monitor mortality
trends in these sectors. The report also lists relevant published studies and current research related to the industry.
The Australian Government Department of Agriculture DA also presents mortality data, though in a different format, under “Reports to Parliament” at their website:
http:www.agriculture.gov.auexportcontrolled-goodslive-animalslive-animal-export-statisticsreports- to-parliament
. It should be noted that the DA mortality figures refer only to voyages for which data was received during
the calendar year, in contrast to this current report which refers to data for all voyages which departed during the calendar year.
2 Project objectives
The project objectives were to: a Produce a report which summarises the mortality of sheep, cattle and goats exported from
Australia for the 2015 calendar year and provide an informed analysis of mortality trends in the livestock export industry, and;
b Maintain data and expertise to provide analysis and informed comment.
3 Methodology
The information in this report was obtained from ship Master’s Reports which record livestock mortalities and other information about each voyage, other tailored shipboard records and from “Yellow
Books”, which record more-detailed information about numbers of livestock mortalities ports of loading and discharge, and daily mortality by type-age-sex categories over the loading, voyage and discharge
phases than is available from the Master’s Report. The shipboard part of the export process is divided into three distinct phases based on dates and times:
load, voyage and discharge. The date and time for the end of loading marks the beginning of the voyage phase. The date and time for the beginning of discharge at the first port of discharge marks the
end of the voyage phase and the beginning of the discharge phase. If a ship delivers livestock to more than one discharge port, and these are in close succession, all the mortalities after the beginning of
discharge at the first of these ports are included in the discharge phase. Occasionally, inordinate periods of time occur between discharge ports or discharge regions. In such
cases, where possible, the voyage is split into separate “voyages” to better reflect the actual conditions that occurred for the stock consigned to those destinations.
Each year a number of ships’ journeys involve loading at multiple Australian ports split-load voyages. Where analysis involves split-load voyages, the consignments of livestock from each load port have
been considered as separate “voyages”. Another occurrence that can inflate the number of “voyages” is where voyages have been split because
the discharge phase involves completion at ports above and below the arbitrary ten-day “short-haul” and “long-haul” voyage length, which attract the DA Australian Maritime Safety Authority AMSA
reportable mortality limits of 0.5 and 1.0 respectively.
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It can be seen that a complex voyage involving one or more load ports and an extended discharge phase over a number of regions will generate multiple “voyages”. As an example, a ship might load at
three ports and discharge over two regions, effectively generating six “voyages” if livestock were sent to each discharge region from each port. In most cases the current high quality of the information
supplied allows this close description of the actual conditions experienced. This is almost a “privileged problem”, in that the information is usually so comprehensive that it allows
tracking of consignments from individual load ports to individual discharge ports. So, the current definition of “voyage” has almost completely shifted from consignment from load port to discharge
region, to consignment from load port to discharge port. This current report is for all voyages which departed Australia during the calendar year 2015.
Information for livestock exported by air was provided by the Federal Department of Agriculture. In this report information regarding export destinations for sheep has been sourced directly from
Industry figures shipboard and Exporter records for the first time. This was because an irregularity in the usual information source was detected.
A formatting update has been introduced in this current report. Where mortality rate range data is presented in tables, the numbers shown have been extended to the second decimal place. This will
illustrate differences that may be real but not apparent with numbers shown to one decimal place From 2012 onward, graphs and tables presenting long-term overviews are restricted to a rolling ten-
year basis. It is considered that the older data does not reflect the current state of the trade in terms of standards required of industry, ships participating and markets serviced.
In recent years the significant rise in livestock exports to Turkey and the Black Sea caused an imbalance in the “Miscellaneous Destinations” category. A new destination region, South-East Europe,
was introduced in 2012 to allow a more meaningful examination of exports to this region. South-East Europe includes ports in Turkey and the Black Sea.
Beginning in the 2013 report, references are made to Federal Department of Agriculture investigations into exceptional voyages and flights mentioned in the report text. It should be noted that these
Department of Agriculture reports have been available to the public for a number of years and that parties with an interest in the live export industry have been aware of this availability.
All high-mortality voyages have been included in relevant summary figures in this series of publications. It should be noted that in some instances inclusion of such voyages,
usually resulting from exceptional circumstances such as mechanical failure or trade dispute, and therefore not representing usual trade
conditions, would distort consideration of long-term trends. Where exceptional voyages have been excluded from analysis of trends, explanatory text or footnotes indicate the exclusion.
Further information regarding exceptional voyages can be found at 6.2 Appendix 2. Any Internet links provided are current up to the date of publication of this report.
In order to maintain confidentiality, individual ships are identified by codes in this report. Summary information was produced using Statistix 10.0 Analytical software 2000 Tallahassee, Florida
USA. Readers should be aware that additional information for a particular year may be received after
publication of that year’s summary report. Such information will be added to the database and used in subsequent analyses. Therefore, statistics for a particular year may vary slightly in subsequent reports
from those originally published.
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4 Results and discussion
4.1 Sheep
4.1.1 Performance trend
Figures 1 and 2 show the number of sheep exported and the percentage of mortalities during sea transport from all ports in Australia to all destinations over the last decade, as well as the trend line
linear regression across those years. The 2.01 million sheep exported in 2015 was the second-lowest number exported since recording began in 1985. The number of sheep exported annually since 2006
has varied between 4.19 and 1.94 million, and the annual mortality has varied between 0.97 and 0.62. The trend for numbers of sheep exported and annual mortality has been downward.
Figure 1
Number of sheep exported by sea from Australia to all destinations since 2006
1.0 1.5
2.0 2.5
3.0 3.5
4.0 4.5
5.0
06 07
08 09
10 11
12 13
14 15
L o
ad No
. x
1,000,000 X
Year
Figure 2 Annual mortality of sheep exported by sea from Australia to all destinations since 2006
0.0 0.2
0.4 0.6
0.8 1.0
1.2 1.4
06 07
08 09
10 11
12 13
14 15
M or
ta lity
X
Year
Discharge Voyage
Loading
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4.1.2 Overview
All sheep exported live by sea from Australia in 2015 were loaded either at Fremantle 89.2, Adelaide 8.7, or Portland 2.1. The overall average voyage and discharge lengths were 16.79
and 5.36 days respectively Table 1, below. The shipboard part of the export process is divided into three phases: loading load; voyage to the first
port of discharge voyage; and discharge. The discharge phase includes all mortalities after arrival at the first port. Consequently, if a ship called at more than one discharge port, all the mortalities after
arrival at the first port were included in the discharge phase. See the Methodology section of this report for a more detailed explanation of the voyage phases and instances of split-loading and split-
discharging. There were 7 voyages to the Middle EastNorth Africa in 2015 for which sheep were loaded at more
than one port in Australia split-load voyages. Mortalities for split-load voyages were attributed to the port of loading for all voyages in 2015. Where analysis involves split-load voyages, the consignments
of sheep from each load port have been considered as separate “voyages”. Using the above definition of voyage, there were 38 voyages of sheep to the Middle EastNorth Africa
during 2015. This involved 31 ship journeys, 7 of which were split-loaded. 2,005,913 sheep were exported to the Middle EastNorth Africa 99.6 of all sheep exported and the
average voyage length voyage to first discharge port for exports to this region was 16.96 days, with 5.73 days for discharge most voyages had multiple discharge ports. The overall mortality for these
sheep was 0.62. Malaysia was the destination country for the 8,458 sheep 0.4 of all sheep exported that were
exported to South-East Asia on 3 voyages. The overall mortality rate for these sheep was 0.84 with an average voyage length of 14.68 days and an additional 0.70 days for discharge. These sheep will
not be examined further in this report. Table 1
Mortality rates, number of voyages, voyage and discharge days, and number of sheep exported for voyages to major destination regions during 2015
Parameter MEN Africa
SE Asia Total
Voyages No. 38
3 41
Sheep No. 2,005,913
8,458 2,014,371
Mortality rate overall 0.62
0.84 0.62
Mortality rate range 0.15 – 1.75
0.33 – 1.10 0.33 – 1.75
Voyage days Ave. 16.96
14.68 16.79
Discharge days Ave. 5.73
0.70 5.36
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Destination Country
Countries that imported Australian sheep in 2015 are shown in Table 2. The main importing countries were Kuwait 36 of all Australian sheep exports, followed by Qatar 24 and Bahrain 16.
Overall export numbers fell by 9.9 compared to 2014. Markets changed variously, but the biggest changes contributing to the overall fall in exports were for Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Qatar, which
experienced falls of 59, 16, 90 and 11 respectively.
Table 2 Destination country for sheep exported from Australia during 2015
Country Fremantle
Adelaide Portland
Other Total
Bahrain 293,467
7,000 24,000
324,469 Egypt
7,678 7,678
Israel 80,357
5,201 85,558
Jordan 118,309
118,309 Kuwait
679,725 45,062
9,917 734,704
Oman 79,428
5,000 84,428
Qatar 385,769
112,000 14
497,783 U.A.E.
144,169 5,800
3,029 279
153,277 S.E. Asia
8,458 40,869
49,327 N.E. Asia
15,705 15,705
Other 78
78 Total
1,797,362 175,063
41,946 56,945
2,071,316
Note: figures include exports by air.
4.1.3 Middle EastNorth Africa 4.1.3.1 Port of loading
Most sheep exported by sea from Australia to the Middle EastNorth Africa during 2015 were loaded at Fremantle 89.2, Figure 3 with smaller numbers loaded at Adelaide 8.7, and Portland 2.1.
Figure 3 Number of sheep exported by sea to the Middle EastNorth Africa from Fremantle Western
Australia, Portland Victoria and Adelaide South Australia since 2006
0.0 0.5
1.0 1.5
2.0 2.5
3.0 3.5
06 07
08 09
10 11
12 13
14 15
Loa de
d mi
ll ion
X
Year Fremantle
Portland Adelaide
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The number and class of sheep exported by sea to the Middle EastNorth Africa from Fremantle, Adelaide and Portland during 2015 are shown in Table 3 below. Overall numbers exported to the
region in 2015 fell by 10.0 compared to 2014, with exports from Fremantle, Adelaide and Portland falling by 5.8, 35.3 and 27.4 respectively.
The main changes in 2015 compared to 2014 were decreases in exports of adult wethers -12 and ram lambs -51. The fall in adult wethers comprised decreases of -7, -35 and -1 for Fremantle,
Adelaide and Portland respectively, while the fall in ram lambs comprised a 41 decrease from Fremantle and almost a 100 decrease from Portland.
Other than small increases in wether and ewe hoggets, and a 63 increase in ewe lambs, all other class numbers fell during 2015.
Table 3
The numbers and classes of sheep exported by sea to the Middle EastNorth Africa from Fremantle, Adelaide and Portland during 2015
Class of Sheep Fremantle
Adelaide Portland
Total Wethers
adults 955,941
161,606 41,917
1,159,464 hoggets
185,953 185,953
lambs 469,824
8,649 478,473
Rams adults
34,424 404
34,828 hoggets
10,281 2,700
12,981 lambs
35,471 996
29 36,496
Ewes adults
65,782 65,782
hoggets 3,986
3,986 lambs
27,242 708
27,950 Total
sheep 1,788,904
175,063 41,946
2,005,913
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4.1.3.2 Mortality rates
The total mortality rate for all sheep exported to all destination regions during 2015 was 0.62 Table 4, below, a decrease from the 0.71 observed in 2014 and a new record low, surpassing the 0.68
observed in 2013. Fremantle voyage and overall mortality rates fell by 25 and 11 respectively compared to 2014
levels, while the discharge mortality rate rose by 24 Table 4 and Figure 4. Adelaide voyage, discharge and overall mortality rates fell by 17, 39 and 33 respectively.
Similarly, Portland voyage, discharge and overall mortality rates fell by 5, 31 and 15 respectively. One high-mortality voyage each for 2013 and 2014 will not be included in some analyses, as the high
mortalities occurred under exceptional circumstances, and would distort the study of long term trends. Where this exclusion applies, text, tables and figures are appropriately annotated. Federal Department
of Agriculture investigation summaries regarding these voyages are referred to in 6.2 Appendix 2. There were no high mortality investigations conducted for sheep exported by sea during 2015.
Table 4
Annual shipboard mortality rates for all sheep exported from Fremantle, Adelaide and Portland to the Middle EastNorth Africa, and the Total mortality rate for all sheep exported
to all destinations
Mortality rate Year
Load Voyage
Discharge Total
Fremantle 2011
0.00 0.44
0.20 0.65
2012 0.00
0.60 0.23
0.83 2013
0.00 0.36
0.17 0.53
2014 0.00
0.53 0.17
0.71 2015
0.00 0.39
0.23 0.63
Adelaide 2011
0.00 0.55
0.18 0.74
2012 0.00
0.52 0.33
0.86 2013
0.00 0.17
5.61 5.79
2014 0.00
0.53 0.26
0.78 2015
0.00 0.44
0.16 0.60
Portland 2011
0.00 0.83
0.21 1.05
2012 0.00
0.31 0.12
0.42 2013
0.00 0.35
0.11 0.47
2014 0.00
0.41 0.32
0.72 2015
0.00 0.39
0.22 0.61
Total 2011
0.00 0.55
0.20 0.75
2012 0.00
0.58 0.23
0.81 2013
0.00 0.35
0.32 0.68
2014 0.00
0.53 0.18
0.71 2015
0.00 0.40
0.23 0.62
Middle EastNorth Africa only Total includes all sheep exported by sea from Australia to all destinations
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Figure 4 Annual mortality for sheep exported from Fremantle, Adelaide and Portland to the Middle EastNorth Africa from 2006 to 2015
0.0 0.2
0.4 0.6
