“The assumption was that the sheep were diseased but even after the shipment had left from Bahrain we had had an independent vet and the Australian government both confirm the sheep were not diseased.”

He said PK Livestock did know what was going on.

Mr Meerwald said it was not normal procedure to tell the country where the ship had previously been.

“We never deal with importing countries governments,” he said.

“The government deals with government.”

Mr Meerwald said what happened in Bahrain was unprecedented and the country was a reliable customer, as was Pakistan.

But in a group interview last Tuesday, Wellard Rural Exports chairman Mauro Balzarini, Mr Troncone and Mr Meerwald said both markets were now off the company’s agenda.

“Sheep will not go to Bahrain or Pakistan unless there is an absolute water-tight guarantee that this will never happen again,” Mr Meerwald said.

“As an industry position the Australian government will need to be satisfied that this won’t ever happen again before we will even look at it.”

Mr Balzarini said recent events would see them review the way the company trades in an attempt to ensure this event didn’t happen again.

“The trade is important and we want to continue but we know there is some thinking which needs to be done as a consequence of this event,” he said.

Since the Four Corners episode some animal activist groups had called for an end to the live export trade because there was no guarantee an incident like this could not happen again.

Mr Meerwald took aim at armchair critics of the situation such as Animals Australia, saying it did nothing to help animal welfare or improve the situation.

“I don’t think the closing of the trade will happen,” he said.

“The only people who are talking about shutting the trade are the Lyn Whites and the Animals Australias of the world.

“They did not lift a finger to assist the Australian government, PK Livestock or Wellard or anybody who was in Pakistan dealing with these issues.