News

Pain relief declarations closer on eNVDs?

Terry Sim, 01/07/2021

LIVESTOCK producers may soon be able to make declarations on electronic National Vendor Declarations on whether their sale animals have received pain relief during on-farm management.

At the recent MerinoLink online conference, Meat & Livestock Australia managing director Jason Strong was asked when mulesing and pain relief treatment declarations might be added to the National Vendor Declaration for sheep and lamb sales.

Mr Strong said there was two parts to the question.

“Firstly, when do some of these activities become part of our compliance with free trade agreements?” he asked.

“At the moment they are not, but I think it is getting closer. It was certainly part of a discussion at a high level for example, in the recent United Kingdom FTA negotiations.”

Acknowledging to Beef Central this morning that the principle behind the question could equally apply to cattle declarations, as well as sheep and lambs, Mr Strong said MLA wanted more information to travel with production animals along the supply chain.

“I think where we are getting to at the moment is that the (printed) NVD isn’t necessarily the best mechanism to do that, because of the process that has to be gone through to get something actually on the NVD document.

“The greater opportunity we’ve got is with the electronic NVDs (eNVDs), where we have greater flexibility around what goes in that file, or on that file, and then travels with animal through the supply chain,” he said.

“So I think there is a much quicker opportunity to add things, like pain relief or mulesing declarations, or antibiotic treatment or other activities to a file that travels with the animal – but isn’t necessarily with the primary biosecurity document (the paper-based NVD).

“If it was going to go on the NVD, it is going to take a long time, because it has to go through SafeMeat and be supported by industry representative organisation policy,” Mr Strong said.

“But as far as getting it with an (electronic) file which travels with the animal, that’s going to be a lot easier and it’s something we are actually working on now,” he said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Comments

  1. Bruce Dumbrell, 11/07/2021

    Could pain relief logo be added as a status like scabby mouth V and added to the database of electronic tags ?
    The status would remain with animal
    If traded up till slaughter
    It would allow for individual animals

  2. John A. Mohr-Bell, 02/07/2021

    Isn’t this leading us to the ‘Certified Humane’ brand just being rejected by the ACCC?
    If so hard to include in the hard copy NVD, why wasn’t it planned when these were being printed, if this is what the industry wants?
    Taking Jason’s point that the hard copy NVD does not follow through to end users, as the eNVD apparently does, why use them in the first place?

  3. Alex & Diana Cowlishaw -- Wooling Pastoral Company., 01/07/2021

    What benefit will this be & to whom, when some will be getting pain relief for castrating &/or dehorning, & some will not be getting anything if they are polled heifers ??
    Surely we are not going to have to identify every single animal as to what treatment it may have had !!

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