Details of deaths of breeder sheep on way to Indonesia

The reason why 80 breeder sheep died on a flight to Jakarta on Saturday night is still unknown.

Eighty sheep died on a flight to Indonesia at the weekend but full details of what happened are yet to be released.

The breeding sheep died on a flight to Jakarta on Saturday night.

A spokesman for the Australian Livestock Exports Council said the deaths were “immediately reported to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry as the industry regulator”.

“ALEC, LiveAir, the exporter and the air freight operator will work with the regulator as

investigations into the incident progress,” the ALEC spokesman said.

“Given the investigation is ongoing we will provide further information as it is confirmed.”

In 2023, almost 30,000 sheep were exported by air across the world.

From 2019 to 2023, mortality rates on air freight transport for sheep have been low at 0.01 per cent, with losses of one to five sheep annually.

Exporters who air freight sheep must provide an end of journey report for every consignment under the Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock.

Meanwhile, the cause of mass cattle deaths aboard a ship en route from Darwin to Indonesia earlier this year remains unclear.

Australian cattle unloaded from Brahman Express, in Panjang port, Bandar Lampung, Indonesia

Following questions from The Weekly Times, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries published the details of its investigation into the cause of 151 cattle deaths aboard the Brahman Express in March.

The mortality rate for the voyage was 4.53 per cent, or 151 cattle out of the 3332 on board the ship, which was well above the reportable level of 0.5 per cent for live cattle export voyages.

“The findings of the investigation indicated mortalities were most likely caused by botulism from the cattle being exposure to toxin from the botulism-causing bacteria while in Australia,” DAFF said on its website.

“The investigation for this incident has confirmed that mortalities were related to an existing animal health condition, and not related or caused by any failure of exporter processes and controls and not related or caused by the act of transit (vessel infrastructure, sailing conditions or on-board management).”

The voyage was operated by animal exporter Frontier International Northern, which has gone on to complete 16 trips to Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam in the five months since the incident, with no reportable events.

Live animal exports are a sensitive issue in Australia, just months after the federal government announced it would phase out live sheep exports by sea within four years.

The March incident was also a flashpoint between the Indonesian and Australian governments, after Indonesia’s quarantine agency complained that authorities weren’t alerted to the scale of the cattle deaths until the remaining cattle had been offloaded in the country.

The ship’s crew was blamed for the lag time in reporting the deaths, with DAFF stepping in to communicate the casualties.

The RSPCA’s chief science officer, Suzie Fowler, critisied DAFF’s limited inquiry into the incident, and said it was proof a veterinarian should be on every live export voyage to provide appropropriate care, treatment and intervention for the animals.

There is no legal requirement to have a vet on board relatively short trips, such as between Darwin and Indonesia.

“This is an unsatisfactory response from the department, because it doesn’t tell us anything about how this was allowed to occur and what was done when the animals started showing signs of sickness,” Dr Fowler said.

“If this is the limit of the department’s response, then we call on the live export industry to clearly outline what steps they’ll take to prevent such a devastating outcome happening again.”