Research Targets Improvements in Pig Welfare During Transport

Research being conducted in eastern and western Canada will help identify changes that will improve the comfort of weaned pigs during transport. To help address challenges when transporting weaned pigs and provide information to support regulatory changes Canadian scientists are conducting research aimed at improving the comfort of weaned pigs during transport. Dr. Yolande Seddon, an assistant professor in swine behavior and welfare with the Western College of Veterinary Medicine and NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Swine Welfare, says researchers are looking at how the pigs cope with short and long duration travel.

 

 

The pigs are close to weaning so they've been recently weaned or are at weaning. We ideally want them to get onto feed as quickly as possible. Transportation obviously creates a bit of a gap in that. We also have many additive stresses because the pigs have to go into a novel environment. There are many temperature changes within the trucks.

 

There are new individuals, there are vibrations from the trucks, there is human handling influences so it has the potential to have many additive stresses at once. Then you do have the element of the journey itself. The road conditions can influence the comfort levels of the animals and also how long the animals are being transported for. There can be magnitudes of effect when we have climatic conditions interacting with journey durations.