Authorities identify parasitic disease as likely cause of death for NT cattle aboard the Brahman Express

Authorities say the Northern Territory cattle who died at an export depot near Darwin most likely succumbed to parasitic intestinal disease coccidiosis, as opposed to the original diagnosis, botulism. Fifty cattle died at an export depot near Darwin, and a further 100 cattle — from the same facility — also died on the Brahman Express, a livestock carrier which left Darwin on March 24 bound for Indonesia. The incident sparked two separate investigations, one led by the Northern Territory Government which took charge for the deaths at the export depot, and one led by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestries into the fatalities at sea. The deaths also triggered Indonesia to temporarily suspend the involved export depot from exporting cattle to the archipelago nation. Initial evidence indicated the cattle’s symptoms were “consistent with “botulism”, however the NT’s chief vet Rob Williams said the most likely cause was now coccidiosis. “Unfortunately we weren’t able to come to a strong conclusion around this, but the evidence we’ve found strongly supports a coccidiosis diagnosis,” Dr Williams told the ABC. “It’s definitely not a contagious or infectious disease, but is one of those things that cattle live with and normally it’s all good.” DAFF said routine welfare checks showed no signs of lumpy skin disease or foot and mouth disease, and further precautionary testing conducted by the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness returned negative results for any exotic disease. Coccidiosis, caused by a parasitic infestation, is an infection and inflammation of the intestines. Clinical signs of the disease include straining, pale gums and membranes around the eyes, and foul-smelling scouring with or without blood in the faeces. Dr Williams said the export depot near Darwin had done “the right thing”, and said the incident was a case of bad luck as opposed to mismanagement. “I think this was just an unfortunate event of cattle coming from a reasonably dry area to a wet area and the environmental conditions have contributed to this unusual (case)“, he said. “I don’t think this was a management issue, this was more just unlucky . . . and probably a series of unfortunate events. “Could more have been done to prevent this? Probably not.” Dr Williams said despite the evidence, it was too early to completely rule out botulism. The NT Government has now concluded its investigation into the cattle deaths at the export depot. A DAFF spokesperson said the investigation into the deaths at sea was still under way. “We continue to work closely with the NT Government on the investigation.”