Effects of the Truck Suspension System on Animal Welfare, Carcass and Meat Quality Traits in Pigs

Abstract

Simple SummaryTransportation is a complex stressor in which animals are exposed to a series negatively stimuli, such as vibration, new environmental conditions, variation in temperature and humidity, social mixing, noises among other poor factors, which can result in welfare problems and economic losses such as increased skin lesions, poorer pork quality traits. Transport stress may be reduced through a vehicle suspension system that provides a much smoother ride during transport, and consequently is less aversive to pigs. However, air suspension systems are more expensive and have bigger maintenance costs. This increase in transportation cost must be supported by the benefits from improvements in quality of freight transport; otherwise, the truckers will be paying unnecessarily for a similar or equivalent ride quality. Thus, finishing pigs were assessed after transport to slaughter by the same two double-decked trucks using two types of commercial vehicle suspension, leaf-spring and air suspension, to compare effects on blood cortisol and lactate at exsanguination, behaviour during lairage, and carcass (skin lesions) and pork quality traits. The use of leaf-spring suspension system negatively affects the welfare of pigs due to the increased carcass damage and resulted in poorer pork quality traits.AbstractThe objective of this study was to assess the effects of two types of commercial suspension (leaf-spring (LS) vs. air suspension (AS)) installed on two similar double-decked trucks on blood cortisol and lactate concentration, lairage behavior, carcass skin lesions and pork quality traits of 120 crossbred pigs. The suspension type neither influenced pig behaviour in lairage nor blood cortisol and lactate concentrations (p > 0.10). However, when compared with the AS suspension system, the use of LS increased the number of skin lesions in the back and thigh (p = 0.03 and p = 0.01, respectively) and produced thigh with lower pHu (p < 0.001) and yellower colour (higher b* value; p = 0.03), and paler back muscles (subjective colour; p < 0.05), with a tendency to lower pH (p = 0.06). Therefore, the use air suspension system can improve carcass and meat quality traits of pigs transported to slaughter.

The Impact of Grouping on Skin Lesions and Meat Quality of Pig Carcasses

“…During transport, some pigs may have difficulties in standing up, lose balance and fall. In such situations, pen mates can tramp the fallen pig, resulting in skin lesions due to mounting [35]. Moving animals to a new environment, in this particular case, the trailer and the lairage, may provoke some aggression even among familiar animals [34], possibly because of the effect of stress on social memory, i.e., the ability to recognise (recent) groupmates [36].…”

“…On the other hand, the L* value, which is an indicator for colour lightness, between Mix 0 and Mix 80 did not differ. Dalla Costa et al [35] explains the discrepancy between the JCS and L* value by the confounding effect of the light reflectance of marbling fat. Because of fat colour reflectance, higher marbling scores may have resulted in higher L* values, while visual colour scores are not influenced by marbling scores.…”

Pig trade networks through live pig markets in Guangdong Province, China

“…Live animal markets provide a location where there is direct contact and mixing between animals and humans that can facilitate disease spread (Bowman et al, ; Dutkiewicz et al, ; He et al, ; Kiss et al, ; Myers et al, ; Robinson & Christley, ; Van der Poel et al, ; Zhou et al, ). Furthermore, long‐distance transport and mixing of animals at live animal markets is stressful (Dalla Costa, Lopes, & Dalla Costa, ; Earley, Buckham Sporer, & Gupta, ; Sommavilla et al, ; Zurbrigg et al, ), allowing greater opportunity for pathogen and disease spread between animals.…”

Ease of Handling and Physiological Parameters of Stress, Carcasses, and Pork Quality of Pigs Handled in Different Group Sizes

“…The transport of pigs to the slaughterhouse was made using a double-decked truck (Triel-HT, Erechim, Brazil) with a fixed upper deck and a leaf-spring suspension system at a density of 230 kg/m 2 . A technical description of the truck is presented in [14,15]. The truck was driven straight to the slaughterhouse without stops.…”

“…The same cooked LT muscle samples were then cooled at 0 °C for 12 h, cut into five rectangular cores (1 × 1 × 2 cm) parallel to the longitudinal orientation of the muscle fibers, cooked, and used for the determination of Warner–Bratzler shear force using a Warner–Bratzler device attached to a TAXT2i Texture Analyzer (Stable Micro Systems, Surrey, UK). The meat quality classification was calculated according to the quality criteria set for this study [14,15].…”