Sheep toll record in Napier shipment

Press, 19 June 1986, Page 1

Sheep toll record in Napier shipment

PA Napier A record number of sheep died in the shipment that left Napier last month, it was revealed yesterday.

The second shipmenf to Saudi Arabia left New Zealand on May 16, and reached Jeddah on June 11 with a death toll of 4.83 per cent. Long-tailed lambs were sent from the ports of Napier and Timaru. Of those lambs preconditioned for the sea voy--age in Napier, the death rate was more than 6 per cent. Information given from the Minister of Agriculture’s office yesterday quoted pneumonia as the biggest cause of death in the sheep ship El Cordero. There were 15,000 long-

tailed lambs and older rams sent from Napier, and 25,000 sent from Timaru. The weather on the voyage had been unseasonally cool and was generally overcast except one day before unloading when temperatures were high. Problems were encountered over preconditioning at the Napier port before loading on May 13 when a 48-hour load-out ban was placed on the sheep by the Ministry of Agriculture. The Ministry maintained that the exporting

' company, New Zealand Agricultural Exports, Ltd, had not adhered to strict feeding requirements where sheep must be fed the same food they would eat aboard the ship 48 hours before loading. Agricultural Exports’ general manager, Mr Graeme James, said significant losses from viral pneumonia on the shipment would be countered in future shipments. “We are looking at medicating water in the ship, and also some form of vaccination of the sheep,” he said.