Yangtze Harmony under arrest in Singapore over $1.8m towage bill

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