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Review to determine cause of fish kill crisis
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The Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources David Littleproud yesterday announced news of an independent assessment into the fish death crisis that has hit Western NSW in the last couple of months.
The panel aims to identify the cause of the fish deaths and make recommendations to avoid future deaths within the parameters of the historic Murray-Darling Basin Plan and Murray-Darling Basin Agreement.
This crisis, which has seen the deaths of up to a million fish along the Darling River in Menindee, has been met with uproar from locals and government officials alike, with ongoing disputes about the cause of the deaths.
Despite considerable conjecture in the media, the federal Department of Environment and Energy has denied that the deaths are related to water mismanagement. As reported by the ABC , the department claims the crippling drought conditions in the area – which sparked an outbreak of toxic blue-green algae that suffocates fish – is to blame.
The NSW government has also come under criticism from some quarters for its role in the disaster, though NSW Minister for Primary Industries Niall Blair said the only solution to the crisis is rain.
“We really need significant rain to generate replenishment flows otherwise these impacts will persist and possibly increase throughout summer,” said Minister Blair. “You can’t dismiss the impact of drought when in the last six months, we have had 30 gigalitres of water flow in the Northern System, while in an average year we would expect 4,000 gigalitres. The numbers speak for themselves.”
New research by the Australia Institute has only served to exacerbate the pressure on both the state and federal governments.
Maryanne Slattery, Senior Water Researcher at The Australia Institute, said that the reason for the fish kill was the mismanagement of the Menindee Lakes in southwest New South Wales.
“It is clear what has caused the Darling River fish kill – mismanagement and repeated policy failure,” said Ms Slattery. “To blame the fish kill on the drought is a cop-out, it is because water releases were made from the lakes when this simply shouldn’t have happened.
“It’s time to stop passing the buck. The Prime Minister blames the drought, the NSW Water Minister blames the Commonwealth, upstream blames downstream, and downstream blames upstream.”
In response, Minister Littleproud said the independent panel will obtain advice from NSW Department of Fisheries scientists and other experts in native freshwater fish ecology, water management and water quality.
Leading the independent panel will be the University of Melbourne’s Prof Rob Vertessy, who is also Chair of the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s independent Advisory Committee on Social, Economic and Environmental Sciences (ACEESS).
The first round of draft reports for the review is due by February 20, with final findings to be handed down the following month.
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Trace minerals are required for optimal growth, reproduction, and immunity. Optimising trace mineral status relying solely on oral supplements across a herd may fail because of variation in individual intake and reduced absorption due to antagonism of other ration components and minerals. The use of injectable trace mineral supplements has been associated with positive reproductive outcomes including improved conception rate, increased odds of pregnancy and greater final in calf rate. A study conducted on 2,168 dairy cows, administered injectable trace minerals, four weeks prior to calving and again four weeks prior to the start of mating showed treated animals had a 3.3 per cent greater final in-calf rate, and a reduced time from start of mating to conception, compared to control animals 1 . The Importance of B12 Dr Carl Eden, Technical Services Veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim says “Vitamin B12 is sometimes referred to as a ‘super vitamin’ because it is only required in very small amounts but vital to many essential metabolic pathways. However, demand for B12 can vary considerably during the year and we see serum levels of B12 fall at critical times, such as the first few months after calving.” Vitamin B12 contains cobalt, so deficiency in cobalt can lead to deficiency in vitamin B12 because ruminants get most of their B12 as a byproduct of ruminal fermentation where the bacteria in their rumen assemble B12 from cobalt for use by the cow. Sub-optimal trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at calving, mating, and drying off has been shown to negatively impact growth, reproduction, and immunity. Using a trace mineral injectable containing vitamin B12 can improve trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at these critical times. Marks-Min with Vitamin B12 – The Evidence In the largest trace element study to date, Marks-Min Injectable Trace Mineral with Vitamin B12 demonstrated remarkable results when compared to a reference trace mineral injection. “Given the differences between Marks-Min and other products on the market, we wanted to generate a compelling data set to demonstrate how effective it was compared to the pioneer product. We entrusted this work to a third-party research company” says Dr Eden. “We chose farms that were at the top of their game from a reproductive perspective. We made sure that the farms had no evidence of trace element or vitamin B12 deficiencies or excess.” Across all outcomes of interest, Marks-Min demonstrated clear non-inferiority when compared to the reference product. Outcomes measured included submission, pregnancy and conception rates, and six week in-calf rate. Marks-Min demonstrated it is highly suited as an alternative treatment to the reference product. Reference: 1. Hawkins, D., and B. V. S. Franklin. New Zealand Dairy Veterinarians Newsletter 24 (2007): 12-16 Company website: livestockfirst.com.au Company email address: CustomerCare.Australia@boehringer-ingelheim.com Company video: https://vimeo.com/1138807630?fl=pl&fe=cm
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