Live Animal Exports And Zoonotic Disease Risks

Worldwide, the live animal export trade — where living farmed animals are shipped overseas, often traveling weeks at a time — is growing rapidly. Many of these animals are slaughtered soon after arriving at their destinations. However, some animals are then shipped to another country or sold in live animal markets. 

Many animal advocates have pointed out that animal agriculture may put humans at an increased risk of zoonoses, as farmed animals are often kept in crowded, unsanitary conditions and given too many antibiotics, leading to antibiotic resistance. The situation is similar for animals subjected to live transport, as poor conditions on the ships and other vehicles used to move them over long distances can weaken their disease resistance. By reviewing existing literature, the author of this study explores some of the key causes of zoonoses in farmed animals in live export, their potential to harm human health, and some possible solutions. They use shipments from Australia as a case study, as Australia is a major exporter of live cows and sheep (especially to the Middle East and Asia). 

Even before animals are loaded onto ships, they face a variety of stressful conditions. For example, cows are often herded to handling yards using helicopters and airplanes, while sheep are herded using dogs and workers on motorbikes. The animals are typically packed into close quarters on trucks that drive them to the export ship, where they have to adjust to a new diet and mix with animals from other farms. Although an inspector is present to identify sick or infected animals as they’re being loaded onto the ship, they may not catch every animal. 

Once on board the export ship, farmed animals face even more stressors that harm their health and could hurt ours, too. Heat stress, uncomfortable ship motion, and starvation are common occurrences. The study’s author notes that animal health and transport regulations are inconsistently enforced and may not be strong enough to ensure animal welfare. For example, industry standards for ships carrying farmed animals require less than a centimeter of bedding that may not be replaced at all over a month-long trip. This is uncomfortable for cows and puts them in contact with their own waste, exposing them to disease-causing pathogens.

On live transport ships, animals are typically tightly packed in hot, dirty areas with high ventilation — conditions that enable illnesses like scabby mouth, salmonellosis, and even coronaviruses to spread. According to the author, many of these diseases can quickly jump from farmed animals to humans and could mutate to resist treatment from antibiotics. To exacerbate the situation, destination countries might not have enough medical resources to tackle disease outbreaks from live transport, and they could be at increased risk because of the novelty of a given disease. While not classified as zoonoses per se, the author even notes that live export increases the occurrence of non-communicable diseases (e.g., diabetes and cardiovascular disease) in areas that have increased their meat consumption as a result of live exports. 

Unfortunately, most recommendations in place to prevent diseases and zoonoses in live transport do not explicitly address long-distance live transport as the underlying cause. According to the author, regulating live export is difficult because of the many stakeholders involved in the trade and because regulations are not always enforced. Nevertheless, the author concludes that zoonotic disease risks from the live export trade is high, and that exporters need to be held accountable for improving unsanitary conditions that compromise animal health and welfare. 

The study presents other immediate steps that may reduce the risk of disease transmissions, including increasing disease surveillance, providing more bedding for animals, and taking protective measures like vaccinating workers. However, together with the severe welfare issues associated with live animal exports, this study provides further evidence that the industry is harmful to both humans and animals. Such evidence may be helpful for animal advocates working to ban live exports.