Effects of pretransport handling stress on physiological and behavioral response of ostriches

Abstract

Ostrich (Struthio camelus) production is a relatively young industry and there has been little research on ostrich welfare during pretransport handling and the transportation process. A heavy body with a high center of gravity makes ostriches' handling and transportation problems different from other livestock. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of the pretransport holding time duration on ostrich behavior and physiological responses. A second objective was to identify and validate behavioral indicator(s) that could be used to identify stressed birds during pretransport handling. Prior to shipping, twenty-four 2.5-yr-old ostriches were moved into a holding pen. Birds were then individually restrained, hooded, and walked from the holding pen (approximately 12 min/bird) to a sampling pen (visually isolated from the holding pen) where they were weighed and a 10-mL blood sample obtained. A second blood sample was taken from each bird after a 1,100-km transportation. Blood samples were analyzed for concentrations of blood metabolites, enzymes, corticosterone, and white blood cell and differential counts. Behavioral responses and physical damages of ostriches were also recorded before and after transport. Results indicated that birds that spent longer time in the pretransport holding pen had higher pretransport plasma concentrations of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, sodium, and packed cell volume. Immobile sitting behavior, observed in 5 out of the last 11 birds handled, was positively correlated with higher pretransport handling stress, higher posttransport aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, creatine phosphokinase, and glucose concentrations, and transport losses. Knowledge of pretransport handling impacts on ostrich stress and availability of behavioral indicators (e.g., immobile sitting response) could be used to improve handing processes, thereby decreasing potential weight loss, injury, and mortality.

Transport stress induces weight loss and heart injury in chicks: disruption of ionic homeostasis via modulating ion transporting ATPases

“…It also reduced the animals’ live weight gain [26, 27] and the quality of animal products [28, 29], and resulted in significant weight loss in emus [30]. The posttransport body weight of all birds was significantly lower than their pretransport body weight [31]. In our present study, a greater weight loss was presented in the road transport treated chicks, which was in agreement with the previous study.…”

Impact of Pre-transport Feed Withdrawal on Welfare and Meat Characteristics of European Quails

“…Posttreatment handling (weighing, transportation, and stunning) was the same for all groups and quails showed similar corticosterone values, possibly for these being unfamiliar activities. When facing stress-causing agents, the birds, activate the breakdown of hepatic glycogen and gluconeogenesis, consequently increasing blood glucose (Yalçin et al, 2004;Bejaei et al, 2014), as seen in this experiment. However, other scientific studies have shown that glucose concentrations remained stable in different periods of broiler feed restriction during growth (De Jong et al, 2003;Rajman et al, 2006) or fasting for several days in Japanese quails (Sartori et al, 1995); therefore, it is suggested that the glycaemic response is different in face of possible acute or chronic stressors.…”

Gastric impaction: an important health and welfare issue of growing ostriches

“…Stress in birds renders them prone to many undesirable outcomes which result in production losses in poultry (Huchzermeyer, 1997). The environmental stress factors include temperature, humidity, handling, transport, stocking density, noise, poor access to feed, hierarchical dominance, and presence of predators around the farm (Deeming and Bubier, 1999;Shanawany and Dingle, 1999;Bejaei and Cheng, 2014;Navarro et al, 2019). These environmental factors influence the feeding behaviour of ostriches and can lead to development of conditions like pica (Samson, 1996).…”