By Bruce Cochrane.
The Chair of Sask Pork says Canada's pork producers are committed to the comfort and safety of their pigs during transport.
In Canada livestock can remain in the transport trailer for a maximum of 36 hours before being offloaded for feed and rest however there have been calls recently for that time limit should be shortened.
Florian Possberg, the Chair of the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board, points out offloading animals at a common rest area puts them at increased risk of exposure to disease which is a much greater animal welfare concern.
Florian Possberg-Saskatchewan Pork Development Board:
Our system needs to really be concerned about outcome.
Whether it's a short haul or a long haul, if there's significant injury or loss of animal life, that's not acceptable.
Any transportation that doesn't have a good outcome needs to be corrected because that's not acceptable to the general public, it's not acceptable to us as an industry.
On the other hand we do want our animals to get from point A to point B as comfortable and as healthy as possible and we need to continue to improve our equipment and the logistics of moving so that they're as comfortable at both ends of their trips and their welfare is well taken care of.
I think, as an industry, we are working on ways to make our animals more comfortable with more sophisticated equipment, the trailers, the ventilation, the way the trucks take out the bumps and bruises that can happen on rough roads and those sorts of things.
Possberg says years of experience have shown pigs can handle a 36 hour trip as long as they get appropriate immediate care at the other end.
Source: Farmscape