Page 47 of 201 Figure 6: Mean voyage mortality rate arranged by year. Bars represent 95 confidence
interval.
There appeared to be some variation in voyage mortality rate from year to year, however the differences were not statistically significant p0.05.
7.4 Mortalities that contributed data to the project
Necropsy reports were received from a total of 215 of the 742 mortalities 29 that were recorded for the participating voyages. This group of 215 animals formed the study
population that was analysed in more detail to describe the causes of death in cattle on participating voyages.
Of these 215 animals, 135 63 were found dead, 57 were euthanased 26 and the manner of death was not recorded for the remaining 23 11.
The protocol outlined in the Veterinary Export Handbook W.LIV.0252 asked that AAVs complete a NecropsyDead Cattle Report for all dead cattle, as a way of recording deaths.
The protocol then outlined an approach to necropsy that was a compromise intended to reduce time commitment from AAVs by minimising the number of necropsies that were
performed while attempting to ensure sufficient necropsies were done to allow characterisation of the major causes of death. The approach involved doing necropsies on
three representative animals within a period of several days when multiple deaths occurred with the same or similar presenting signssyndrome. After that, if additional deaths occurred
with the same or similar signs, then the AAV was asked to conduct additional necropsies at a rate of one every 1-2 days from the group of animals dying with similar signs.
.0 5
.1 .1
5 .2
.2 5
.3 .3
5 .4
2010 2011
2012 Year
Mortality rate by year
Page 48 of 201
It was recognised in the design phase of this project that not every death would be able to be necropsied. The aim was to have necropsies completed on sufficient numbers of dead
animals to allow characterisation of the major causes of death.
The results clearly indicate that AAVs were completing forms mainly for those animals that were necropsied and not for all deaths. Information on total numbers of deaths for each
voyage was then sourced from other data sources for analysis including voyage mortality reports tabled in parliament and available from the Department of Agriculture website and
the Shipboard Mortality Database.
7.5 Clinical presentation
