This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the performance of the livestock export industry in terms of mortality levels of sheep, cattle and goats exported by sea and air from Australia during 2016.  The report provides a breakdown of mortality trends by ship, species, time of year, load ports and major destinations.

The overall mortality rate for sheep during sea transport to all destinations during 2016 was 0.80% (14,203 mortalities in 1.78 million sheep exported). This was a slight increase on the 0.62% mortality rate in 2015. All sheep exported live by sea from Australia in 2016 were loaded either at Fremantle (89.5%), Adelaide (8.3%), or Portland (2.2%).

The overall mortality rate for the 1.13 million cattle exported from Australia in 2016 was 0.13% (1,355 mortalities). This was a slight increase on the mortality rate of 0.10% observed in 2015. The overall mortality rates on voyages to the Middle East/North Africa and North-East Asia were 0.30% (218 mortalities in 0.07 million cattle exported). The overall mortality rate on voyages to South-East Asia was 0.09% (775 mortalities in 0.86 million cattle exported). 

There were no goats exported by sea in 2016. Air transport is now the primary mode of carriage for live goat exports from Australia.