Our beef with EC over calf exports
» Lack of feeding on ships criticised » Ireland’s stance is branded ‘absurd’
IRELAND and the European Commission are at loggerheads over what the EC claims is the State’s ‘legal obligation’ to ensure unweaned calves are fed during live export.
We reported in 2021 how calves, some just 14 days old, are sent on long sea voyages without any food for up to 30 hours.
The European Commission audited Irish practices to ‘evaluate official controls on the protection of unweaned calves during long journeys’ in June 2022.
Its interpretation of the legal requirements, as outlined in the report and supported by European Food Safety Authority opinions, are that intervals between milk meals should not exceed 12 hours.
The report is positive in many respects about steps taken by Irish authorities, concluding “the welfare of unweaned calves during long journeys is a high priority for Ireland”.
It did, however, identify what it described as “gaps in the system” which it said “weaken the assurances it has been designed to provide”.
CONTROLS
They found what auditors assessed as key weaknesses in Irish controls, including “not ensuring these animals are fed on the roll-on roll-off vessel based on the conclusion made by Ireland that calves can be transported by sea for journeys exceeding 19 hours without being fed without causing injury or undue suffering”.
Irish authorities, according to the audit report, “explained their considered view that there are no legally prescribed maximum feeding intervals...and that calves are only legally required to be fed if feeding is necessary to avoid causing the animals injury or undue suffering”.
It added: “The Irish authorities contend that calves do not suffer injury or undue suffering during sea transport from Ireland.”
A calf is considered unweaned until about eight weeks old as they are still dependent on milk.
Around 150,000 are exported from Ireland to continental Europe every year, by truck and ferry, mainly from Rosslare and Dublin ports to the French port of Cherbourg. Calves then face onward journeys to mainly Spain and the Netherlands.
The EC report outlined how “journey logs assessed by the audit team all indicate that journeys from Irish assembly centres to the Cherbourg control posts last longer than 19 hours, taking for example 24 hours from the start of the journey at one of the assembly centres visited to the time of unloading”.
It stated: “The
competent authorities indicated that transporters are not making arrangements to feed the unweaned calves on the roll-on roll-off vessel, although the journey time reaches in total approximately 22 to 24 hours. This is not in line with the Commission’s interpretation of the legal requirements of feeding intervals. “The animals are only fed when they are unloaded at... Cherbourg.” Ethical Farming Ireland (EFI) hit out at the view of Irish authorities.
Its director, Caroline Rowley, told us: “The [Department of Agriculture] are of the opinion that nowhere in the legislation does it state animals must be fed, it’s just a recommendation. “That is absurd. “They feel that as long as the animals don’t suffer they can be transported indefinitely without feeding.
“However, this is contrary to numerous studies that show the negative impacts of depriving unweaned calves of feed for extended periods.”
Teagasc commissioned Frontiers in Veterinary Science to probe the impacts of journeys from Ireland to the Netherlands on calves.
It outlined how “calves must be fed a suitable amount of milk (or milk replacer) at least twice a day when housed” as the animals’ immune systems have not developed.
The additional stresses of transport like fasting, co-mingling with others and adverse climate conditions “result in further immunosuppression” allowing pathogens to “invade the respiratory and digestory tracts”.
The 2023 report found: “Overall, calves showed a decline in their physiological status during the journey between Ireland and the Netherlands...the changes were most obvious during the ferry journey between Ireland and France.” EFI has now written to the EU to urge it to act on the findings of the audit report. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which oversees live export, did not respond to our requests for a comment. But in previous correspondence about the issue, they said Ireland’s semi-state agricultural research body, Teagasc, studied “the potential of a recently developed system for feeding calves with milk replacer on board a truck”. They added: “Some significant technical challenges were identified which would have to be overcome before adoption of such a system for use in routine transport operations.”
Numerous studies show the negative impacts of depriving unweaned calves of feed for extended periods