The livestock export industry is continuing to develop more effective and efficient ways to measure and interpret animal welfare outcomes on livestock export ships.
Phase 1 of this project demonstrated the feasibility of integrating multiple welfare indicators into a single framework to enable more consistent, objective and actionable assessment of animal welfare outcomes across the supply chain.
This phase will focus on advancing the model towards practical, operational use, and refine, validate and integrate the framework into existing industry systems.
This project is managed by the Livestock Export RD&E Program (LEP), a collaboration between LiveCorp and Meat & Livestock Australia.
Refine and validate the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) using operational data and real-world conditions.
Integrate the framework into the industry’s data platform LIVEXCollect to be tested and refined by research team and stakeholders.
Improve model performance, usability and reliability through testing and stakeholder feedback.
Develop practical guidance and tools to support adoption by exporters and shipboard personnel.
Enable benchmarking and comparison of welfare outcomes across voyages.
Being able to use data in a more practical and actionable way to assess animal welfare both during and after voyages will support earlier identification of emerging risks and improve decision-making by exporters and shipboard personnel. The framework will provide a consistent approach to benchmarking welfare performance across the supply chain, while strengthening transparency and confidence in welfare reporting.