Causes of death in sheep exported live by sea

Post-mortem examinations were conducted on 950 dead and terminally ill sheep during assembly for export and during transport by sea from Fremantle, Western Australia to various Middle East ports. Causes of death were grouped into 5 major categories; inanition (deaths associated with reduced feed intake, including hypocalcaemia and hypomagnesaemia), salmonellosis (enteric and septicaemic), trauma, diseases associated with excessive feed intake (lactic acidosis and enterotoxaemia) and miscellaneous diseases (mostly of farm origin). During assembly the causes of death were salmonellosis 53.4%, miscellaneous diseases 23.8%, trauma 12.6%, inanition 10.2%, acidosis 3.9%, enterotoxaemia 3.4% and no diagnosis was made in 3.4%. During shipping the causes of death in defined populations of sheep in 5 voyages were; inanition 43.4%, salmonellosis 20.2%, trauma 10.6%, miscellaneous diseases 5.9%, enterotoxaemia 1.0% and no diagnosis was made in 19.0%. The range of mortality rates per 10,000 sheep at risk for the first 11 days at sea in 5 voyages were inanition 52.6 to 76.7, salmonellosis 7.8 to 109.8, trauma 2.1 to 17.1, miscellaneous diseases 5.9 to 17.1 and enterotoxaemia nil to 10.3.     

Deaths in sheep exported by sea from Western Australia - analysis of ship Master''s reports

Mortality reports were studied for 181 shipments of live sheep from Western Australia to the Middle East and Singapore in 1985 and 1986. Samples of pelleted feed for 93 shipments were analysed for quality. Overall death rate in the 6.46 million sheep exported in the period of the study was 2.18%. In sheep bound for the Middle East, most of the deaths occurred during the voyage (overall rate 1.7%, range 0.4-4.4% per shipment), although substantial mortality was recorded during discharge (rate 0.4%, range 0.0-1.8%). There were few deaths during loading (rate 0.07%, range 0.0-0.8%). Deaths in sheep bound for Singapore were almost 10-fold lower than those sent to the Middle East. Several findings suggested that ship design and management may contribute to mortality. Death rates were invariably low on some ships and often high on others. Death rates were nearly always higher in enclosed decks than in open decks on 4 vessels, and point epidemics of mortality were observed in several shipments. Temperature and relative humidity measured on the ship's bridge were not closely related to daily death rate. Antibiotics estimated to cost $226,000 were used during 33 voyages in 1986 and were considered of dubious efficacy on shipboard mortality. Analysis of feed pellets used on ship showed that the quality of the diet was within the range set by draft national standards for pellets used in the live sheep export industry.