This National Standard covers the Development, Collection and Reporting of Animal Health Data through the Supply Chain. It aims to standardise the language used, and processes for, codification of animal health data and apply it uniformly up and down the meat supply chain. In doing so, it aims to enable efficiencies in the production of animals and food. Specifically, this standard will enable consistent communication of animal health and other animal and meat defects between producers and processors.

The National Standard does not attempt to define or alter any existing processes or activities associated with meat inspection, nor related activities. The only purpose of this National Standard is the uniform codification of identified Disease and Defect conditions and their subsequent disposition for reporting both in human-readable formats and in machine-readable formats.

This National Standard was initially developed under MLA/AMPC project V.RBP.0024 Capture and reporting of ante-mortem and post-mortem data: scoping and standards development.

Subsequent projects have built on this initial work with the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources 'Rural Research and Development for Profit Program' Health for Wealth project driving national adoption.

Although the animal health attributes of clinical signs and post-mortem findings very rarely change, the disease status of Australia and other attributes collected may change. Therefore, it is expected that this Standard may need future updates following public consultation. Members of the meat supply chain are urged to notify the Work Group of this standard (please see Comments and Feedback below).

The Work Group for this Standard reports to the RMSCC.

The National Standard for the Development, Collection and Reporting of Animal Health Data through the Supply Chain facilitates the collection, analysis and reporting of attributes of animals, meat, and animal by-products through the supply chain. These attributes include animal health information from ante and post-mortem. However, it is acknowledged that a lot more valuable information is and can be collected and reported through the supply chain, so this standard has been developed in a way that this information can be captured.

All attributes collected and reported are aimed at enabling efficiencies in the production of animals and food, up and down the meat supply chain. The methodology for setting these standards ensures that all information or data collected has a purpose and value, with no collection of data for collection sake.

With regard to animal health information at processing, the Australian State and Commonwealth legislation for meat production calls upon the Australian Standard for the Hygienic Production and Transportation of Meat and Meat Products for Human Consumption (AS4696: 2007), which requires under clause:

• 8.20 A record is kept of the ante-mortem disposition applied to animals (other than a disposition applied to animals passing them for unconditional slaughter); and
• 10.20 A record is kept of:
  (a) carcases and carcase parts to which a disposition {described in sub-paragraphs 10.12 (a)(iii), (iv) and (v)] of unfit for human consumption and may be recovered for animal food or pharmaceutical material; or condemned is applied; and
  (b) carcases and carcase parts affected or suspected of being affected with a disease or other abnormality presenting a risk to public health and of the nature of the risk presented.

AS4696: 2007 also prescribed the disposition requirements to be made at ante-mortem and post-mortem.

This National Standard allows the collection, and therefore recording, of this information in a uniform, consistent and standardised manner. The National Standard covers the diseases and disposition requirements stated in AS4696: 2007 as a minimum. This National Standard reflects Australia’s current animal health status and therefore does not include exotic diseases. However, the following notifiable, endemic diseases are included: anthrax (National), liver fluke (Western Australia) and hydatids (Tasmania). The methodology included in this National Standard for the development of attributes (i.e., clinical signs and post-mortem findings for animal health) does provide the capacity for variations in the future, as and if required.

Structure of the National Standard

The technical structure of the standards is designed to support capturing and reporting Disease and Defect attributes along the livestock supply chain from breeding through to slaughter. To achieve this outcome the standard is structured as four key encoding elements.

1. Attribute type (1 digit) - For Disease and Defect conditions this always has the value of '3' for 'Disease and Defect recording'.
2. Process - (1 digit) - 'Ante Mortem Inspection' has a value of '1'. 'Post Mortem Inspection' has a value of '2'.
3. Supply chain - (2 digits & 1 digit & 1 digit - Total of 4 digits) - such as 'Processing Slaughter Floor' which as a value of 21, 'Viscera' which has a value of '1' and 'Liver' which has a value of 5. The collective supply chain code is 2115.
4. Attribute - (2 digits) – such as 'Fluke' which has a value of '01'.

The item has the following code: 32211501.

The collective National Standard assigned code value for this example is '32211501'. The detailed information about this example code including the species and disposition can be represented in human-readable format as:

32211501 - Meat Inspection/Post Mortem Inspection/Processing Slaughter Floor/Viscera/Liver/Bovine/Fluke/CONDEMN

The National Standard information can be represented in a Comma Separated Values file that can be emailed along the supply chain. An example file including example processing plant, specific animal RFIDs, body numbers, inspection detail and disposition can be found here: CSV Specifications for Slaughter Disease and Defect Industry Data Standard.

Elements of the National Standard

Attribute type (1 digit)

Disease and Defect always has the value of '3' for 'Disease and Defect recording'.

Process - (1 digit)

The options for the 'Process' are limited to 'Ante Mortem Inspection' which has a value of '1' or 'Post Mortem Inspection' which has a value of '2'.

Supply Chain part A - (2 digit)

The options for the 'Supply Chain' part A are limited to the values defined in a list. The supply chain code is collectively four digits. Part A covers the first two digits, signifying a step in the supply chain. There can be one or more supply chain codes in the sequence to identify where in the supply chain an attribute is being recorded. This reflects the practice that some attributes can be collected at multiple steps in the supply chain. This can result in an attribute having multiple codes. However, it is important to understand where in the supply chain the attribute was collected.

The available options for the 'Supply Chain' part A are found here: 'Supply Chain' part A values.

Supply Chain part B - (1 digit)

The options for the 'Supply Chain' part B are limited to the values defined in a list. The supply chain code is collectively four digits. Part B is the one digit after part A and defines the second step in the supply chain. If there is no applicable second step to the supply chain, then the part B digit is 0.

The available options for the 'Supply Chain' part B are found here: 'Supply Chain' part B values.

Supply Chain part C - (1 digit)

The options for the 'Supply Chain' part C are limited to the values defined in a list. The supply chain code is collectively four digits. Part C is the one digit after the part B and defines the third step in the supply chain. If there is no applicable third step to the supply chain, then the part C digit is 0.

The available options for the 'Supply Chain' part C are found here: 'Supply Chain' part C values.

Attribute Sequence Number - (2 digit)

The attribute sequence number is the last two digits of the full eight-digit attribute code. Each attribute within each supply chain code is assigned a sequence number.

The available options for the 'attribute' are found here: 'Attribute Sequence Number' values.

Additional Attributes for Research Activities

The National Standard supports Attributes that are used for research and other more detailed Disease and Defect condition and disposition recording and reporting. These more detailed Disease and Defect condition and disposition attributes would not normally be recorded as part of production Meat Inspection processes. These more detailed Disease and Defect condition and disposition attributes are included in summarised reporting through grouping to the more common root Disease and Defect condition and disposition attribute.

Species

The Species allocation defines to which species an attribute applies. There can be one or more species for an attribute. For example, a fracture could occur in any species so each species can be assigned to the attribute however erysipelas, commonly known as diamond skin disease, only commonly occurs in pigs and as such only porcine is assigned to this attribute.

Species codes are as below:

Attribute Data Type

The Attribute Data Type defines how the Attribute Unit measurement can be developed by providing the number of characters and types of charters for the measurement. For example:

• Value List: defines the measurement values to be a list of value options.
• Value Range: defines that the measurement is a range from one value to another value.

Attribute Value/Data Range

The Attribute Value/Data Range displays in one of two ways, dependant on the selection at the Attribute Value Rule Class. If the Attribute Value Rule Class is set to "Value List" a list of acceptable values is available. If the Attribute Value Rule Class is set to "Value Range" this would be the minimum and maximum values available.

For example for animal health collection and recording at ante- and post-mortem inspection the Attribute Unit is set to Disposition, the Attribute Data Type is set to an20, the Attribute Value Rule Class is set to Value list and the Attribute Values are as below:

The Attribute Value can also be used for the grading of severity of a disease. This should only be a factor for collection where the grading of severity of the disease can provide a potential value to the producer. Two examples of disease where severity grading may provide value to producers are pleurisy and liver abscesses. Both of these diseases can occur sub-clinically and therefore is rarely identified at the loading of animals or ante-mortem inspection. The grading of severity of the disease provides an indication to the length of time the disease has occurred in the animal, which if reported to producers in a timely manner, allows them to identify other animals that may benefit from treatment.

Complete List of the National Standard as a Table

The complete list of the National Standard in a table format is available here: Complete List of the National Standard

Manual Construction of a National Standard Code

A tool to manual construct a National Standard code value is available here: Tool to Manually Construction a National Standard Code

Use of Local Terminology

The National Standard supports the use of local, business or processing plant terminology for internally identifying the Disease and Defect conditions. The data recording system used by the business or processing plant must support a mapping function to ensure that exported data files and reporting use the National Standard Disease and Defect condition and disposition attributes and codes.

Non-Reporting of Processor Related Conditions

The National Standard supports the concept of reduced exporting and reporting of recorded Disease and Defect conditions. This is typically related to conditions created though some processing activity such as ingesta contamination caused by a ruptured paunch. This Disease and Defect condition is a condition that a producer or supplier of livestock has limit control to prevent. The processor related Disease and Defect conditions would be internally captured and reported for production management and yield measurement, however they may not be externally reported.

Reporting Groups for Simple Reporting and Benchmarking

The National Standard supports the process of applying summarising grouping to facilitate simplified benchmarking and reporting. Hydatids is an example, where Hydatids may be found and recorded in multiple parts of the animal. The resulting information may be reported as multiple Hydatids records such as occurring in the Live, kidney, lungs and head. However, the information may be also be summarised and reported as an individual animal had Hydatids so only reported once. Different species and different production systems (e.g. grain compared to grass feed) may have different reporting groups to best report the relevant conditions.

Mob/Lot Recording

The National Standard supports both lot/mob recording as well as individual recording for each species.

For mob/lot the count or estimated percentage of occurrence of the Disease and Defect condition are recorded against the lot/mob identification (e.g. plant, kill date, recording time, chain, lot/mob identification, inspection identification, mob/lot count and vendor identification [if appliable]) and the lot/mob count. The lot/mob count is necessary to ensure correct percentage calculations and benchmarking. When reporting in a data file format there could be one or more lines reported, where each line would be a Disease and Defect condition and disposition.

For details on Mob/Lot CSV reporting file specification can be found here: CSV Specifications for Mob/Lot based Slaughter Disease and Defect Industry Data Standard

Individual Recording

For individual each occurrence of a Disease and Defect condition is recorded against the animal identification (e.g. plant, kill date, recording time, chain, lot/mob identification, inspection identification, mob/lot count, body number, animal identification [NLIS/RFIS] and vendor identification [if appliable]) and the lot/mob count. The lot/mob count is necessary to ensure correct percentage calculations and benchmarking. When reporting in a data file format there could be one or more lines reported, where each line would be a Disease and Defect condition and disposition.

For details on individual animal CSV reporting file specification can be found here: CSV Specifications for Individual Animal Slaughter Disease and Defect Industry Data Standard

Handling Clean Lots/Mobs

To ensure all mob/lots or bodies are reported, clean mob/lots or bodies would be reported as a record with no (Empty) value for the Disease and Defect condition and disposition, and with the industry code of '31200000' for Ante Mortem Inspection or '32210000' for Post Mortem Inspection. This is reported with the industry code of '31200000' for Ante Mortem Inspection or '32210000' for Post Mortem Inspection indicating a clean line for livestock.

Daily Summary Reporting for Industry Benchmarking

The National Standard supports a daily summary reporting for the purpose of industry benchmarking. The daily summary does not include any vendor or producer identifying information. For details on daily summary CSV reporting file specification can be found here: CSV Specifications for Slaughter Disease and Defect Plant Daily Summary Industry Data Standard

Data formatted values for the National Standard

The National Standard data elements presented as XML, CSV and JSON formated data payload are available here:
XML formatted values for the National Standard
CSV formatted values for the National Standard (Download)
JSON formatted values for the National Standard

Case Sensitivity

Many data importing systems are case sensitive for attribute names and data values. Case sensitivity should be taken in to consideration for any data exporting, data transport and data importing systems.

The National Standard have a status of DRAFT. They are in use by industry for the purpose of testing the suitability and robustness of the current draft National Standard.

Comments and feedback on the draft National Standard are sort from industry. This includes any requests for any enhancements or changes. Any submitted comments, feedback or change requests are reviewed by the Work Group following the RMSCC Core Principles and the RMSCC Standards Development model. To submit comments, feedback or change requests click on this link: RMSCC Feedback and Change Requests.

• AUS-MEAT
• Australian Standard for the Hygienic Production and Transportation of Meat and Meat Products for Human Consumption (AS4696: 2007)
• Elanco's Liver abscess scoring