Live cattle suppliers and exporters are moving hard and fast to shut down opportunistic animal rights propaganda around the deaths of cattle on a vessel headed to Indonesia.
While the official government investigation is yet to play out, all signs are the cattle died from botulism likely contracted on-farm prior to departure.
It was very unlikely any conditions on the boat contributed to the unfortunate incident in any way, said experienced veterinarian Dr Chris Parker, who served as first assistant secretary of the Department of Agriculture's biosecurity animal division before taking up the chief executive officer role with Cattle Australia last year.
Claims from the RSPCA that stress to animals because they were on a vessel played a role was pseudoscience, he said.
Dr Parker also moved to set the record straight about claims the disease spread like wildfire because animals were on a ship. Botulism was not contagious between animals, he said.
More than a hundred head of cattle are believed to have been lost on the Brahman Express voyage, with the mortalities reported to the regulator by the exporter on the weekend.
Dr Parker said early investigations were indicating all the cattle were from the one property "and it is almost certain it took four days for signs of the disease to show up", which means the cattle passed extensive health checks as per legislation and industry standard prior to being loaded.
Within hours of the news of the incident breaking, numerous animal rights groups, and Greens politicians, were seeking to leverage the incident to fuel calls for the live cattle trade to be banned.
The RSPCA's Dr Suzie Fowler said while this particular event might be called unusual, what wasn't unusual was the fact that animals were exposed to additional stress and suboptimal conditions in live export that increased the risk of any disease or infection like these animals appear to have been exposed to.
She said that leads to horrific welfare outcomes "as we have unfortunately seen on the Brahman Express."
Revelations in parliament this year of misinformation spread by animal activists around live export issues has created very little tolerance in livestock industries for inaccurate claims.
Producers are pushing back hard on social media where misinformation about this situation has been posted.
Botulism
Botulism is a rapid onset disease of cattle and is usually fatal, government veterinary fact sheets say.
Nearly all cases in cattle are due to taking in the preformed toxin rather than from live bacteria multiplying in the intestinal tract - that is the animals ate contaminated feed.
In pastoral areas in the north, cases of botulism are often put down to cattle chewing on bones and decaying carcasses chasing protein and phosphorus.
Australian Cattle Veterinarian president Craig Wood it was certainly possible that more than a hundred animals ate from the same carcase and contracted the disease prior to being boarded on the live-ex vessel.
The fact sheets say lower doses of the toxin will produce signs of botulism in cattle within seven to 20 days, which indicates it would be possible for the animals to have no signs between leaving the station and being on the sea.
Dr Wood described botulism as 'low likelihood but high impact'.
Because there is no mandatory reporting of botulism in Australia, annual cattle losses are not known but veterinarians describe it as 'not uncommon' in northern Australia.
The question has been raised of why all cattle are not vaccinated, given the vaccine is a one-shot injection, effective and relatively cheap.
That's complex to answer, Dr Wood said.
In the north, it is often the case that cattle presumed to be vaccinated actually are not, due to typical vaccine failure issues such as missing numbers in mustering.
Dr Wood said most dairy farmers who were feeding part and total mixed rations, which carry a higher risk of botulism toxin contamination, vaccinated.
"My advice is can you afford for 30 to 40 per cent of your herd to drop off the perch, which are typical herd loss numbers in a botulism case," Dr Wood said.
Industry leaders are already suggesting there will be a push to make botulism vaccinations mandatory, and to address failure rates, on the back of this incident.
Shan Goodwin
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
