Bid to find why export sheep die

Press, 19 February 1986, Page 7

Bid to find why export sheep die

NZPA-AAP Melbourne Victoria’s Government is trying to pinpoint why sheep die while they are being exported. A State Agriculture Department study would try to find ways of reducing the losses and improving the animals’ welfare, said the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Minister, Mr Evan Walker.

He was speaking at the first national meeting on health and welfare research needs for the live sheep export industry. Scientists from Western Australia, South Australia, Canberra and • Victoria met to discuss programmes and future research needs for the live sheep industry.

The Australian Meat and Livestock Research Development Committee will grant Victoria sAust4oo,ooo ($524,000) over the next three years to study health and welfare aspects of the live sheep export trade. “The Victorian project will identify causes of mortalities and seek to find methods of management to reduce these losses,” Mr Walker said. The research team,

headed by a Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs veterinarian, Andrew Kelly, includes scientists from the Animal Research Institute at Werribee near Melbourne, the Pastoral Research Institute and the regional veterinary laboratory at Hamilton, western Victoria.

Field and quarantine staff from Portland in south-west Victoria would contribute with work to be done in local feedlots, on live sheep vessels and in controlled experiments at the research institutes.

The project would complement another project already underway in Western Australia. Mr Walker said more than 1.8 million sheep were exported from Portland during 1985. “These exports were worth sAust4o million ($52.4 million) to the rural community and other aspects of the trade, such as pellet manufacturing, feedlotting, stevedoring and provedoring, meant the live sheep export trade earned more than sAustloo million ($l3l million) for Victoria in 1985.”