Research examining the effects of transport on early weaned piglets is expected to help pork producers and transporters improve conditions during transport and provide direction for regulators. As part of research being conducted on behalf of Swine Innovation Porc scientists are looking at the effects of short and long duration transport on early weaned piglets.
Dr. Jennifer Brown, a Research Scientist Ethology with the Prairie Swine Centre, says scientists are tracking a range of transport conditions including humidity and temperature, acceleration and vibration, the stress physiology of the animals and the behavior of the animals during transport.
Clip-Dr. Jennifer Brown-Prairie Swine Centre:
We hope it's going to be very practical information that the industry can apply when transporting early weaned pigs and then also this information will hopefully help to inform policy decisions around transport of animals. Do they need to stop in a long transport or provide those animals with food or water or is it better to continue and complete the transportation and what is the impact on the pig.
Having a better understanding of that will definitely help producers in those transports and hopefully will also help decision makers in future policy making. Our hope is that this will allow us to understand better what impacts the pig during transport and to make better provisions for the care of pigs and improve outcomes in terms of reduced death losses and reduced stress and potential for disease in piglets that are being transported.
Source : Farmscape