Spiridon II : "Floating Nightmare"

Marine Link has reported that  52-year-old livestock carrier Spiridon II is now supposedly returning to Uruguay after its cargo of over 2,800 cows was rejected by local authorities in Turkey. The US Sun  has named it a "floating nightmare".

Translated court transcripts  indicate that 58 cows died in transit to Turkey, 140 cows had miscarriages in transit, 50 newborn calves were present on board, but another 90 are unaccounted for. The vessel left  Montevideo (Uruguay) on September 19 with 2,901 heifers; the court’s rejection of an appeal means the Spiridon II crew was unable to disembark the animals and they have to go elsewhere. Additional fodder was loaded onto the upper deck of the Spiridon II on November 9 but this would be unlikely to last the full voyage.

It is indisputable that late-pregnant heifers were loaded on Spiridon II which would raise the question of whether the consignment was delayed, and heifers that were previously confirmed pregnant but not in the third trimester were in third trimester at the time of actual loading. And did some calve, thus had to be substituted for others with the incorrect ear tags? Only the exporter would know. 

VALE has done some calcs for pregnant heifers and compared conditions to ASEL:
Near-term Holstein heifers should weigh about 420-450 kg. The number of unjoined heifers would be unknown but the possible weights have been calculated as 380, 400 and 420.  The minimum pen areas required under ASEL Table 11a are:380 kg - 1.520 m2, 400 kg - 1.668 m2, 420 kg - 1.746 m2.

Spiridon II has a useable pen area of 3,885 m2. With 2,901 cattle loaded, the average pen area per head at loading was 1.339 m2. So, for any of the weight assumptions above, the Spiridon would have been overloaded for ASEL (not that Uruguay would follow ASEL): 380 kg - 14% overloaded; 400 kg - 25% overloaded; 420 kg - 30% overloaded.

Given the voyage length, it is unlikely that much fodder was onboard by the time that authorities allowed the ship in to load some food in Bandirma. Then with the limited time alongside and night-time loading, it is unlikely that more than couple of hundred MT of fodder was loaded. With 2,843 heifers still alive, plus a few calves, and assuming minimum ASEL requirements, at least 27 MT fodder is required daily, or 216 MT since coming alongside in Bandirma. It is hard to believe that there would be much fodder remaining on board and the hay loaded in Bandirma will not provide the dietary energy and protein required by lactating heifers.

In addition to inadequate nutrition, it is not likely that Spiridon II would have the personnel, facilities, equipment or drugs required to provide adequate veterinary care to the pregnant and calving heifers on board. In addition to calving difficulties, acute mastitis would be a real risk with an open teat orifice, dribbling milk and a pen with putrid (if any) bedding.

If this vessel is really going back to Uruguay as indicated on marine sites, it will almost certainly be an unparalleled cattle welfare disaster. 

NOTE: Reportedly 1400 of the cattle have been confirmed to be pregnant.