Australian companies that supply human heart valve replacements to the United States have been struggling to fulfil export orders due to the industry’s worker shortage.
Queensland-based Nolan Meats, one of several Australian businesses accredited to supply bovine tissue to U.S. medical companies for the heart valve replacements—which are created from the delicate tissue around a cow’s heart—has been operating with only two-thirds of its full workforce, causing a reduced supply of the lifesaving product, reported the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Cattle feeding from a trough on a drought-affected farm near Armidale in regional New South Wales on Aug. 26, 2019. (WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images)
“We fly that out every night, and it goes across to the U.S., and they make heart valves for transplant back into humans, so you’re actually saving human lives by collecting that product,” director of Nolan Meats Terry Nolan said….