The Australian reports West Australian officials have dashed to Jakarta to try to salvage the state’s livecattle trade after the detection of eight new cases of lumpy skin disease in three new export yards across northern Australia.
A Wyndham export yard was one of four Australian facilities suspended by Indonesia, and then Malaysia, last month.  That left Broome as the state’s last port allowed to export livestock with no conditions attached. But the latest cases, were detected in Broome and two other ports in northern Australia, which means all cattle shipped from those sites must now first undergo nose and mouth swabs, adding millions of dollars in costs that producers apparently cannot afford.
Well, thats what comes of having all one's eggs in a shonky basket. Its always been a high risk business and producers always bellyache the minute it unravels....The animals at least will get a respite from the cruelty whilst the trade has AGAIN been suspended.

Sheep Central reports that AA wants to undermine ESCAS. How anyone could undermine an already dysfunctional system however is anyone's guess.The Govt and the exporters continually mouth ESCAS as the catchphrase of regulatory stringency. Yet these standards are not policed or enforced so are regularly flouted by exporters....with importers being the same company as exporters in most ME countries.
Whenever AA turns up, which is not often, they find non-compliance that is later upheld by the Dept. They have a near 100% strike-rate....which says one thing - that this is the norm and not the exception.
Despite what the farmers are told and want to believe, these companies do not care at all about animal welfare and any assertions to the country are just "welf-wash" (the welfare equivalent of environment's greenwash). And they are so confident about getting away with the welf-wash, that they dont even try and ensure good compliance at a critical timepoint with the trade under threat...surely time to at least be seen to be doing the right thing..! One thing is for sure, if its not possible to get ESCAS compliance now, it will never work.