SA’s sheep flock will receive a $3-million health check to help reduce the cost and incidence of endemic diseases such as pneumonia, sheep measles and arthritis.
Meat & Livestock Australia managing director Richard Norton announced the three-year project during the recent Growing SA conference at Hahndorf.
It will build on the success of the Enhanced Abattoir Surveillance Program, which has collected information on 21 sheep health issues for the past decade at Thomas Foods International’s Murray Bridge and Lobethal abattoirs.
Animal health data will also be collected from sheep and lambs processed at JBS Australia’s Bordertown abattoir.
Money from the SA Sheep Industry Fund will be matched by funds from MLA’s donor company with collaboration from TFI, JBS, PIRSA/Biosecurity SA, the Davies Research Centre at the University of Adelaide and several SA farming groups.
The project, identified through the SA Sheep Industry Blueprint, will capture data on about 80 per cent of the sheep processed in SA.
There will also be more resources to work with producers in addressing these issues, which nationwide cost $140m in lost production.
SA Sheep Advisory Group chairperson Leonie Mills said a key component of the project will be to identify the on and off-farm costs of the five conditions that have the greatest impact in SA.
“We aim to reduce these costs by improving the flow of animal health information to sheep producers and equip them with knowledge and skills to implement cost-effective interventions that can be readily applied on-farm," she said.
TFI lamb supply chain coordinator David Rutley also believes it will be money well-spent.
“It is win-win,” he said. “To grow our business and the industry, we have to prove to the world that we are striving for best animal welfare and to our many customers that we are upholding food safety.”
In the past decade, a wealth of data had been collected at TFI abattoirs and feedback provided to producers, but Dr Rutley said this massive database would also reveal a huge amount of information on the prevalence and management of the conditions.
All producer lines of more than 50 sheep and lambs have been inspected at Lobethal, along with lines of more than 100 sheep and lambs at Murray Bridge – representing 10 per cent and 15pc of the national lamb and mutton slaughter.
“As a biologist and statistician I have a gut feel that we have the important diseases covered,” he said. “But we need projects like this to determine how valuable the data is, and where more resources are needed.”
