Summary

A significant amount of data is collected during livestock export voyages to meet regulatory requirements and community demand for the industry to demonstrate its animal welfare performance.

A series of animal welfare indicators are now collected daily during voyages and reported to the regulator via the industry’s standardised data collection system, LIVEXCollect.

However, the subjective and multifaceted nature of some of these assessments requires skill in recording observations of individuals and groups of animals.

This project developed training materials to improve the consistency, reliability and accuracy of the animal welfare and performance data being collected during export voyages. These included presentations, videos and images, practical exercises and reference guides, along with assessments to confirm the competency of participants.

This project was managed by the Livestock Export RD&E Program, a collaboration between LiveCorp and Meat & Livestock Australia.

Objectives

• Develop training materials to support the effective and consistent collection of animal welfare indicators throughout the livestock export supply chain.

• Develop a learning management system to deliver the training on an ongoing basis to on-board personnel.

Benefits to industry

Training will improve the reliability of animal welfare indicators recorded through the livestock export supply chain, providing greater opportunity for analysis and data-driven decision making which, in turn, will improve welfare outcomes for livestock.

It will also improve the efficiency with which the data is collected and simplify regulatory processes.