Buying or selling livestock? Early warnings at the saleyards
The must-dos regarding ‘early warning signs’ at sales:
- It is a vendor’s responsibility to disclose any risks associated with animals for sale.
- It is a buyer’s responsibility to assess any risks associated with the purchase of livestock, and to determine whether they will accept those risks.
- Livestock consigned from an EW status PIC can be sold under the usual terms, but the EW status must be declared on the NVD.
With spring selling season now underway, producers, saleyards and direct-to-processing facilities are hoping for the best quality livestock and price premiums.
However, with concerns around livestock health and biosecurity, every member of the value chain must be aware of contaminated livestock that may be sold. Both the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS) and Livestock Production Assurance (LPA) program have systems in place to ensure the safety of our industry’s products.
Understanding an EW status
Early Warning (EW) is a status within the NLIS database that is automatically assigned to a property carrying high-risk animals. It is one of several statuses that can be assigned to a Property Identification Code (PIC) within the database, however, it does not identify what the status is for, or which specific animals are high-risk.
An individual animal is given a ‘device-based status’ against its NLIS tag or bolus when it has a known disease or residue issue that presents a food safety or biosecurity risk.
The EW status helps monitor and manage risk along the entire value chain. It allows livestock buyers and agents to be aware of PICs with potential risk and contact the vendor for more information about the high-risk animals and consignment.
This status remains active until high-risk animals are slaughtered, or the device-status duration expires or is removed. As such, these devices automatically trigger an EW status on any PIC where the animal resides in the NLIS database.
The status is assigned by a Commonwealth or State Department, a vet or the Integrity Systems Company (ISC) via the NLIS (depending on the type of status) who then informs the producer.
Producers can generate an EW status report through the NLIS database.
Responsibilities of the vendor
It is a vendor’s responsibility to disclose risks associated with animals for sale. Livestock details should be recorded by:
- accurately completing LPA National Vendor Declarations (NVDs)
- confirming such statuses on your NVDs
- updating all livestock movements in the NLIS database
- ensuring NLIS tags and devices correctly identify your PIC and animals
To assure buyers that your stock is safe for purchase, it is recommended that you provide a list of the NLIS tag numbers of each animal in the consignment prior to sale, so statuses can be confirmed by all parties involved.
Responsibilities of the buyer
As a buyer, you can investigate a consignment’s status by either:
- using the PIC register on the NLIS database to search for a specific PIC, and using that to run an ERP PIC status report
- contacting the vendor to seek clarification that there are no high-risk animals in the consignment (in a private sale)
- asking your agent to seek clarification that there are no high-risk animals in the consignment.
It is the buyer’s responsibility to assess risks associated with purchasing a consignment with high-risk animals and determine whether they accept those risks. If you purchase livestock from a PIC with a high-risk status, you are responsible for the treatments needed for that livestock, including protecting other livestock from infection.
Responsibilities for agents and saleyards
Livestock consigned from an EW status PIC can be sold under the usual terms, however the EW status should be declared on the NVD.
At the saleyards, the EW status is shown against the PIC when the saleyard or agent undertake pre-sale checks. As an agent/saleyard, you should:
- undertake full pre-sale checks, including verifying NVDs
- check with the vender for any information of status on their PIC
- scan all animals to determine if any carry high risk statuses
- provide any status information in a pre-sale catalogue.
If the vendor does not know the status of the consignment, and if facilities exist to do so, agents and saleyards can scan the animals in the consignment to check for device statuses and may include this information in the pre-sale catalogue.
The sale of livestock is an important step in our industry’s value chain, and one that must involve a high level of awareness to minimise any potential product contamination. It is the responsibility of everyone to be transparent about the health of their livestock so, as an industry, we can stand by what we sell.
This video explains what an EW status is and what you need to know.