One of the livestock carriers used frequently in the Australian live export trade is now under arrest in Singapore. This ship has been plagued with ship issues and unfavorable Independent Observer reports (see below). Its sister ship, the Yangtze Fortune had even more and was the subject of a concerns letter raised by VALE with the Dept (see Govt Correspondence). The Dept never acted of course (the trade must go on!) and these two ships have continually been allowed to trade despite repeated issues resulting in poor animal welfare. It is indeed good news that something has forced the removal of one of these ships from the Australian live ex trade. So Al Shuwaikh, Barkly Pearl, Bader and Maysora all gone from Australia and now Yangtze Harmony....the more the better.

VALE's SUMMARY OF INDEPENDENT OBSERVER REPORTS FROM YANGTZE HARMONY
Report 16: August 2018; Yangtze Harmony; Fremantle to Huanghua, China; 14 days; 0.13% (3/2190) cattle. AMSA found ventilation issues before leaving that required correction. IO noted issues with water troughs. Understocked but some pens still exceeded ASEL. No vet.
IO SUMMARY REPORT: see report
MEDIA COMMENT: see live-sheep-export-row-hits-cattle-ship-that-fails-inspection-leaving-fremantle

Report 31: November 2018,  MV Yangtze Harmony, Fremantle to Muscat (Oman); 16 days; 0.24% (36/14788) sheep mortality. No information on heat (10am monitoring). Insufficent food for voyage. Water hygiene issues. Judas sheep deprived of food and water. FOI would be beneficial.
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE COMMENT: see document
RELEVANT SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE: see Voyage B in attached document

Report 56: December 2018, MV Yangtze Harmony; Portland to Jing Tang (China); 22 days; 0.25 (10/4975). Conditions ranged from hot and humid (no heat stress reported) through to very cold. Water supply to cattle inadequate on 9 of the 22 days. Constant drainage issues. AMSA notified. No vet.
IO SUMMARY REPORT: see report
VALE COMMENT: see report

Report 91: March 2019; MV Yangtze Harmony; Townsville to Panjang (10 days); to Jakarta (12 days); 0.02% (1/4,983) cattle mortality; major issues with food and water delivery due to poor infrastructure (see also Report 16). 1 person to 8 decks overnight. No vet.
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE COMMENT: see report

Report 103: March 2019; MV Yangtze Harmony; Townsville to Jakarta and Panjang; 11 days; 0.13% (6/4693) cattle mortality. 20% pens overstocked. Mild heat stress. No vet.
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE COMMENT: ~20% pens were not compliant with the ASEL minimum space requirements for the class and weight of the cattle transported. Cattle in these  pens worked harder to access feed and water with less room to move or lie down. The stockperson readjusted numbers in tight pens early in the voyage when these were brought to his attention by the IO! Bos indicus tolerated heat.  Two Bos taurus type animals in good condition on Deck 4 were observed from time to time with slightly increased respiratory rate due to hot temperatures and heat from a nearby air conditioning vent.

Report 126: May/June 2019; MV Yantze Harmony; Portland to Fremantle to Russia (45 days for 2,518 cattle) & 39 days for 1,135 cattle (ex Fremantle); 0.08% (3/3,653) cattle mortality; fodder competition between two unspecified cattle classes noted. Possibly mild heat stress. Vet onboard.
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE COMMENT: Around the equatorial region 28°C wet bulb and mild increasse in RR noted (unspecified). IO stated that no signs of heat stress were observed. Then increased temperature and humidity (no details) were experienced around the Eastern Mediterranean through to the final discharge at the port in Russia with apparently no heat stress but increased water consumption, enough to affect pad negatively.

Report 180: Sept 2019; MV Yangtze Harmony;  Townsville to Thi Vai (Vietnam); 15 days;  0.25% (7/2,836) cattle mortality. 4 heavy bulls had heat stress otherwise apparently perfect. No vet.
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE COMMENT: see report

Report 192: Oct 2019; MV Yangtze Harmony, Townsville to Thi Vai (Vietnam); 12 day voyage; 0.06% (2/3,054) cattle mortality. WBT 23-28 and another perfect report. No vet.
IO SUMMARY: see report

Report 198: Nov 2019; MV Yangtze Harmony; Fremantle to Huanghua (China); 18 days; 0.11% (3/2,618) cattle mortality. Low density voyage with dairy cows. Apparently perfect with no heat stress reported. No vet onboard
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE COMMENT: DBT: 15 and 33 °C, max humidity 85% and no WBT provided. Prolonged hot period at the equatorial zone, but this did not appear to have an adverse effect on the cattle apparently (no RR etc provided).

Report 209: Dec 2019;  MV Yangtze Harmony; Fremantle to Vietnam; 11 days; 0.43% (13/3005) cattle mortality. Wash down a disaster. Food and water deprivation. No AAV.
IO SUMMARY: see report
VALE COMMENT: Some cattle did not have access to feed and water for up to 7 hours as the feed and water troughs were removed from the pens during the wash down. Apparently no adverse animal welfare issues? BUT.."the hosing down of the pen floor during wash down on decks 6 to 8 was noted to frighten some older cattle, causing them to jam against the rails resulting in some injuries. The affected cattle manifested a stress response in the form of elevated pant score of 1 to 3. The elevated pant score was not associated with any heat stress event [and no doubt having no water was no problem during this time....or was that on another deck???]... Approximately 80% of the cattle on Decks 6 to 8 were observed to have a pant score of 3 with open mouth breathing for a duration of 30 minutesto 2 hours following the wash down. During wash down, a total of 13 cattle received injuries, or developed pneumonia following wash down. Of these, 8 did not recover from and were euthanased prior to discharge." Impressive animal welfare all round

Cem Özdemir, Germany’s Agriculture Minister has today announced an end to the export of animals – whether for slaughter or breeding – from Germany to the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. 'We can no longer watch animals suffer and die in agony on long journeys." said Minister Cem Özdemirc

While exporting animals to be killed for their meat has already stopped, animals used for breeding were still being exported. Today's news closes that final loophole and will spare many thousands of cows, sheep, and goats from suffering in the live export trade. There is also an intention to address the loophole that would see German animals transported from other EU countries.

Germany is the first EU country to make this bold move for animals. Congratulations GERMANY.

See: https://www.algoafm.co.za/entertainment/live-export-historic-win-for-animals-in-germany

Since the Awassi Express expose, the animal welfare community have been largely focused on sheep export. The Dept of Ag has had endless reviews requiring submissions, and has obfuscated and obstructed numerous enquiries. The uphsot has been  deflected attention from the ongoing issues in the live export cattle.

In 2020, VALE published a report on the Cattle Voyages to China (Hing et al 2021) and tried to chase up information under Freedom of Information on Independent Observer Report 197. This tied VALE up for months (no doubt intentional) and VALE missed some of the high mortality investigations reports for the northern cattle trade. It is most notable, that the ever so transparent Department of Agriculture, who refute any sanitisation or lack of transparency, now refers to high mortality voyages as "notifiable incidents" - what a marvellous PR-directed euphemism.

VALE's updated analysis for HIGH MORTALITY VOYAGES is now up. VALE has not been able to update the IO Report section of its website because none of the 2022 IO Summaries have been published and there is no information as to how many are pending....

28th Sept 2022 was a day for the diary as NZ Parliament voted to ban live export. Exports of livestock by sea will stop on 30 April 2023. And the reason? Minister O'Connor stated that  commitment to high welfare standards "has already shown its value where animal welfare discussions have been brought up in Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the United Kingdom and the European Union. This Bill reinforces and builds on New Zealand’s reputation as a safe and ethical producer of high-quality food products. It protects the reputation of not just our farmers now but, the farmers of the future who want to commit to livestock farming assured that we are the best managers of animal welfare and producers of ethical animal protein for the world,” Damien O’Connor said. They are sure one-up on Australia which continues to export, despite admitting in Export Advisory Notice 2022/20 that "regulatory settings introduced in 2020 reduced, but did not eliminate, the risk of heat stress for sheep exported to the Middle East"

Information obtained through Official Information Act requests by New Zealand’s SAFE for Animals has revealed that as many as 10 times more animals have died shortly after live export voyages compared with during the journey. The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) however only publishes data based on the number of cows which die during the journey...as does Australia's equivalent (DAFF the current name!).

SAFE CEO Ms Ashton says that if the cows who died shortly after the voyage were included in MPI’s statistics, the number of deaths, in many cases, would double - a fact that was also evident in a recently released voyage vet report where dead cows on voyage were added to destination deaths rather than voyage deaths to keep the numbers down.

The post-arrival reports obtained by SAFE listed causes of death that included: hemorrhagic septicemia (a bacterial disease), pneumonia, rib fracture, stomach rupture, intestinal bleeding, lung adhesion, necrosis [?no Dx] and suffocation - conditions that highlight the suffering and  poor animal welfare conditions on the voyage and after unloading.

Of concern however is that many cows were given grave prognoses at the end of quarantine ie more still would be dead shortly after quarantine making in some cases a likely ten-fold increase in the death rate from "the voyage".

For example, following a shipment that left New Plymouth on 24 September 2021, MPI only reported the three deaths that occurred onboard. However, a post-arrival report SAFE obtained revealed a further 11 cows died during quarantine. An additional 20 cows were given a "grave prognosis" whose condition was expected to deteriorate even with medical intervention.

The NZ National MP, Tim van de Molen claims that cows are "… often coming off the vessels in better condition than they boarded at New Zealand" which either indicates he has no correct information or ...worse!

So, NZ the "world leaders" in animal welfare are precariously maintaining their position purely by lack of transparency. And that should be an indication to any country that good animal welfare is simply not possible in the live export trade...if NZ cant do it...actually no-one can!

Providing more space and reducing journey times to a minimum are needed to improve the welfare of animals during transport, according to recommendations published last week by the European Food Safety Authority.

Irish dairy industry body ICMSA's President Pat McCormack said that while the recommendations certainly have to be given due consideration, a number of them would effectively shut down Ireland’s live export trade and this is simply unacceptable.

Same the world over....live export by sea with good animal welfare is just not possible....and its not the rules that are unacceptable, it is the trade.

See: https://www.independent.ie/business/farming/news/more-space-shorter-journeys-recommended-for-live-exports-41982965.html

Whilst countries such as UK are progressively looking to reduce all live exports, Ireland continues to live export cattle on an increasing scale. Their cattle are often unaccompanied by veterinarians on their voyages and end up in destinations that even Australia wont export to, such as Libya. Their trade continues to blacken any reputation the country may have had for good animal welfare but, like Australia, it is fully supported and promoted by their Dept of Agriculture:
“All live export shipments from Ireland are conducted in compliance with legislative requirements" ....except when they arent
“The Government supports the live export of animals as it is a critical part of Ireland’s livestock industry, and the Government demands the highest standards of animal welfare during transport. "....yes transporting 15 day old calves by sea is definitely an animal welfare model of excellence
"The department facilitates this trade, recognising its critical importance to the agri-sector, while ensuring that live animal exports meet the highest welfare standards.”....heard that one before
And as for the local ferry company shipping calves less than one month of age transported by sea (even Australia doesnt do that!):
“Stena Line takes its duty of care for the welfare of live animals very seriously.”

Ireland must have copied and pasted all the standard responses from Australia - we might have poor animal welfare but we have the world's best animal welfare spin. VALE assumes that Aussie spin fits well with Irish blarney.

See: https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/hungry-stressed-reveal-plight-thousands-27366370

Northern WA's only large-scale abattoir reopened in April following an 18-month closure. With the Indonesian foot and mouth disease outbreak heavily impacting the live cattle export trade, the abattoir is now taking stock that would normally be destined for the live export trade. Meanwhile, the abattoir near Batchelor in the Northern Territory is set to resume processing on July 4 after more than six months of being out of operation. Thats odd - we were always told by the live-ex industry that local processing wasnt an option ...well until it was of course.

The Chief executive of Yeeda Pastoral Company, which owns the Kimberley abattoir, David Larkin, said in June that he was working towards expanding the daily processing capacity from 200 to 300 head of cattle and that they were processing cattle from across northern WA and the Northern Territory. The plan next year is to process more than 80000 cattle.

Mr Larkin said when the live export trade to Indonesia was suddenly banned in 2011, northern WA did not have any abattoirs.He felt the industry was much better placed in 2022 and stated: "A viable processing plant in the north of Australia we would have to think is essential."

VALE would agree - local processing is not only good for farmers in this risky business but infinitely better for the animals. Perhaps we could start sending boxed meat to Indonesia? Wouldnt that be a novel idea?

The Gulf Livestock 1 capsized on 2 September 2020, and yet the livestock and maritime industries are still none the wiser as to the cause of this disaster. The livestock carrier, with 43 people and 5,800 dairy cows onboard, was sailing through a forecasted typhoon (Typhoon Maysak) on a voyage from New Zealand to China. Only two crew members survived. Forty one men including Phillipine, Australian and New Zealand nationals lost their lives. Video footage sent by the crew as the vessel took on water show the water coming into the vessel.

The livestock carrier fleet is old, the vessels are often sailing under flags of convenience and when something does go wrong, the flag state for the vessel can delay investigation reports for years (see the protracted investigation for another livestock carrier, the Danny FII). Like the Danny F II, the Flag State for Gulf Livestock 1 is also Panama. The report of the investigation has apparently been released to family members of the two New Zealand crew who lost their lives. It is not known whether the families of the Philippine or Australian crew have also seen the report and Panama is yet to makes its investigation report publicly available.


See: https://lloydslist.maritimeintelligence.informa.com/LL1141742/Panama-yet-to-report-on-Gulf-Livestock-1-tragedy

A group of farmers who collectively sold $1 million worth of cattle to a live export company in March are reported by 1News NZ to be still unpaid. Farmers from around New Zealand sold cattle to Waikato-based Genetic Development (NZ) Exports Limited Partnership (GDEX LP). The 12,300 head of cattle were destined for China at the end of April this year, however the shipment failed after the livestock carrier, MV Al Kuwait, built in 2016, broke down enroute to New Zealand to collect the animals. and was replaced with a smaller ship. At least one farmer who had cattle returned to him, reported animal welfare issues in the returned animals.

This trade always has been a risky business for animals and a risky business for farmers.
However, this current situation in NZ also demonstrates that having  a phase-out period with a “Continuous Improvement Programme” still has potential for, and possibly results in, serious welfare problems. Phaseout periods should always be as short as possible.