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Applying this hypothesis to the export industry would mean that we might expect most cattle to be subject to mingling and exposure risk on arrival at the assembly depot, akin to
induction at a land-based feedlot. The peak mortality rate for export voyages occurred around week 4 of the voyage, which is comparable to the peak mortality rate from all causes
for land-based feedlots in Australia.
We expect that many of the causal factors influencing occurrence of BRD in export cattle will be the same as for BRD in land-based feedlots. Our results indicate that the pathogens
involved in BRD in export cattle are the same as those in land-based feedlots. Additional risk factors that may be operating during an export voyage include sea and local weather
conditions and the specific deck and pen-level conditions ventilation, air quality, accumulation and characteristics of bedding and manure, temperature and humidity. There
are additional time-based factors on export voyages associated with progressive changes in the pen environments over time e.g. accumulation of waste products and changes in the
local climate and sea conditions that may be associated in part with the geographic position of the vessel as it crosses the Indian Ocean. For example, hot, humid conditions with little
wind in the Intertropical Convergence Zone followed by relatively favourable conditions between the Intertropical Convergence Zone and Gulf of Aden.
The apparently higher mortality rate in cattle destined for the Aegean and Black Sea ports Turkey, Russian Federation compared to the Red Sea and Persian Gulf MENA is
probably due to a combination of the type of cattle on these voyages and seasonal climatic conditions. Six out of the 9 voyages to MENA carried cattle with a high Bos indicus content,
while voyages to Turkey and the Russian Federation comprised Bos taurus feeder and breeder cattle. In addition, 3 out of 11 voyages to Turkey and the Russian Federation sailed
from Australia in January, i.e. from the southern hemisphere Summer to the northern hemisphere Winter, and were thus going from one climatic extreme to another. Exposure to
temperature extremes without sufficient time for physiologic adaptation may have increased the mortality risk for these voyages, particularly around discharge.
9.8 Cattle movement patterns
Lists of RFID animal-level identification values were obtained for all animals on three study voyages voyage ID 5, 8 and 12. Records of cattle movements were obtained separately
from the Western Australia NLIS database. This allowed descriptive assessment of movement patterns for those cattle exported from ports in Western Australia some animals
on these voyages were loaded from ports in Victoria.
Figure 29 and Figure 30 are intended to demonstrate some of the potential of combining NLIS movement records with additional data linked by unique animal identification numbers
RFID number. The three voyages for which data was available included cattle loaded from Broome and Fremantle within Western Australia. The figures show that cattle originated from
across the state.
Page 143 of 201 Figure 29: Map of Western Australia showing lines depicting lifetime movement records for
cattle exported from WA ports on three export voyages. Colours represent categories of lifetime distance travelled by cattle before export.
Page 144 of 201 Figure 30: Map of Western Australia showing lines depicting lifetime movement records for
cattle exported from WA ports on three export voyages. Colours represent movements for each of the three separate voyages.
Across all cattle movement records, the number of property to property movements prior to export ranged from 1 to 10 for any individual animal. Lifetime movements for individual
animals covered distances ranging from 6 to 3,790 kilometres and cattle originated from 105 shires.
Limitations in the data records constrained what we were able to achieve in assessing animal movement patterns. We were only able to obtain individual animal identification lists
for three voyages. While these voyages represented many thousands of cattle, the ability to look for large scale patterns in animal movement would be improved if data were able to be
obtained from more voyages.
It was not possible to obtain individual animal identification records for all animals that died on voyages enrolled in this study. The ability to record individual animal identification through
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RFID or NLIS identification records has tremendous potential to serve as a foundation for additional records that are of value to provide better decisions for industry operators.
Lifetime data such as breed, sex, property of origin, date of birth, etc could be linked to individual animal identification records.
Pre-export treatments or other measures may also be recorded, such as disease testing, vaccination, application of treatments antibiotic, anthelmintic, parasiticide, etc, animal
movements and measures such as body weight, condition score, etc.
Morbidity and mortality records and cause of death can be recorded against individual animal identification records.
An aggregated dataset could then be analysed to look for associations between any possible measures sex, breed, treatment, origin, movements, time of year, etc and
complex interactions between these measures and defined outcomes such as mortality due to specific causes or morbidity.
The benefit of this information for exporters is making better decisions about selecting animals and managing animals during preparation for export transport to assembly depot,
treatments or vaccinations, etc to lower morbidity and mortality risk and improve performance and profitability.
10 Development of a shipboard application
10.1 Background
