ABSTRACT:The welfare of commercial rabbits depends on the attitudes and handling procedures used by farmers, hauliers and abattoir personnel, as well as the transport logistics. Many studies have been performed on commercial rabbit production but less attention has been paid to identifying critical points during the whole transport procedure. In this study, a survey of rabbit transport was performed in Spanish abattoirs to determine the parts of the process that most compromise the animal's welfare. Data were collected for the methods for loading, unloading, transporting, holding and slaughter. Handling procedures differ widely among farms, especially regarding cage size (ranging from 1430 cm² to 10000 cm²). Loading facilities were adequate and transport time was short. Only a few hauliers had received specific training courses. The average time before the unloading was short (4.5±13.8 min) but holding time before slaughter was usually longer than one hour and varied widely between abattoirs (ranging from 0 min to 420 min).

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The study analysed the effect of lairage on some indicators of welfare and meat quality in lambs. Forty-eight lambs were divided into two treatments: T1 without lairage and T2 with 12 h of lairage. Blood samples were collected at slaughter to analyse cortisol, lactate, glucose, creatinine kinase, non-esterified fatty acid, white blood cells, red blood cells, haematocrit and ratio of neutrophil : lymphocytes. Meat from the M. longissimus was analysed in terms of pH 24 h postmortem, water-holding capacity, texture and colour. Sensory analyses were performed by a trained panel. Lairage had a significant effect on stress response, but had no effect on haematological variables. The lambs with a lairage period before slaughter (T2) had significantly (P 0.001) lower values of cortisol at the time of slaughter. A similar result was observed for lactate and glucose, with T1 lambs showing significantly (P 0.05) higher values than T2 lambs. The creatinine kinase activity and non-esterified fatty acid concentrations were highest in T2 lambs (P 0.05). Instrumental and sensory meat quality were not affected, with the exception of water-holding capacity and some meat colour indicators. The water-holding capacity was significantly higher for T2 (P 0.05), while T1 lambs had a higher yellow index (P 0.05) and hue (P 0.05). The results obtained in this study suggest that animals will be less stressed at the time of slaughter with an overnight lairage compared with slaughter on arrival at the abattoir. While stress at the time of slaughter can influence meat quality, these changes were small and always within the normal commercial range.Additional keyword: animal welfare. of the European Community Commission (1986) for Scientific Procedure Establishments. Ternasco-type lambs, weaned at

1. Providing open water to farmed ducks is beneficial for their health and behaviour but, at commercial densities, may also have negative consequences for the health of the ducks, the productivity of the farms and environmental contamination. 2. The current experiment investigated the suitability of three types of open water resources in a commercial setting, assessing their effects on water usage and water quality. The three resources were: narrow troughs (15 cm wide and 8 cm deep), intermediate troughs (20 cm wide and 12 cm deep) and wide troughs (50 cm wide and 8 cm deep). A total of 23 flocks of ducks with a mean size of 4,540 ± 680 individuals and a final stocking density less than 17 kg/m(2) were studied. 3. Intermediate troughs used twice as much water as narrow troughs and wide troughs. Intermediate troughs had the best microbiological water quality, wide troughs had the worst physical and microbiological quality and narrow troughs tended to be intermediate. 4. Open water provision resulted in high water usage, but this might be reduced by further investigating cleaning regimes, ballcock systems and the volumetric capacity of the troughs. It was difficult to maintain good water quality, and more research is needed to investigate the long term effects on productivity and public health.