The Canadian swine industry relies heavily on the transport of weaned pigs. Recently, the maximum acceptable transport time for pigs in Canada has been decreased from 36 to 28 hours. Weaning is a stressful period for pigs and pigs are often transported at the same time that they are weaned. This project examined the effects of long and short transport durations under Canadian commercial conditions on the health and welfare of piglets.
Data from four loads of each duration were collected in summer 2019. The physiological responses of weaned piglets undergoing short duration (<2 h; SD), and long duration (<36 h; LD) transport were compared at three time points: before loading (T0), immediately after transport (T1) and 3 days after arrival at nursery sites (T2).
For each time point, 60 LD and 50 SD piglets were weighed, and lesion and gait scores were recorded. Results indicate that LD piglets lost weight during transport, while SD piglets did not. The SD piglets showed a large increase in cortisol levels, indicating stress, during transport whereas levels in LD piglets were higher at loading and decreased during long transport. Differences in weaning timeline between LD and SD piglets also influenced measures of stress and lesion scores making interpretation difficult. While both the LD and SD piglets showed signs of transport stress, mortality levels were low (0.06%) and did not differ significantly between treatments.
Further analysis of behaviour during transport and in nursery pens is underway and will provide additional insights on the effect of transport on weaner pig health and welfare.
Effects of long-distance transport in the health and welfare of early-weaned pigs (full article)
