Indonesia suspends live cattle imports from Darwin export yard

Indonesia has suspended live cattle imports from a Darwin export yard while authorities investigate how more than 150 animals died this month on a transport ship.

Australia suspected the deaths were caused by botulism, a paralysing disease animals picked up from eating food contaminated with particular bacterium. All the dead cattle were from the same Northern Territory property, an industry source said.

The suspension, despite Australian efforts to point to a non-contagious disease, underscored the uneasy biosecurity relationship between the two nations over a trade worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Wisnu Wasisa Putra from Indonesia’s quarantine agency said on Thursday night (AEDT) that officials were trying to understand how 151 cattle were reported dead by Australian authorities, but only eight turned up dead on Sunday at the final destination in North Sumatra.

“The ship captain wrote a mortality report,” he said. “What’s written on that document was that eight died. We said that to the Australians at a meeting [on Wednesday] and we demanded an investigation.”

The Australian source told this masthead that most of the dead cattle were dumped at sea, apparently a standard procedure if diseases were detected. It was not clear if this action hampered testing.

Indonesia is by far Australia’s largest market for live cattle, worth more than $600 million dollars annually in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. Demand was greater this time of year for the Muslim observance of Ramadan.

“We hope we still have [enough beef],” Wisnu said. “Other premises in Australia can export. There are also beef imports from other countries.”

More than half of the roughly 2.5 million live cattle sent to Indonesia since 2019 departed from Darwin. But it was understood there were several non-affected Top End export yards that could be used if the ban lingered.