Effects of travel distance and season of the year on transport‐related mortality in cattle

Abstract

The number of animals that die during transport to a slaughterhouse or shortly after being delivered to a slaughterhouse may serve as an indicator of animal welfare during transport. The aim of this study was to determine the mortality rate in cattle resulting from transport to slaughter in the Czech Republic in the period from 2009 to 2014, and to investigate the effect of travel distance and season of the year. Transport-related mortality rates were recorded for all categories of cattle for the following travel distances: up to 50 km, 51-100 km, 101-200 km and over 200 km. Higher mortality rates occurred with shorter travel distances (<50 km and 51-100 km) when compared to longer travel distances (101-200 km and > 200 km), with a significant difference (P < 0.01) between short and long travel distances being found in feeders and dairy cows. Also, the season of the year had a significant impact on the mortality rate among transported cattle. The highest mortality rate in all categories was observed in spring months. The lowest mortality rate was found in autumn months for fat cattle and dairy cows and in winter months for feeders and calves.

Road Transport of Farm Animals: Mortality, Morbidity, Species and Country of Origin at a Southern Italian Control Post

“…In our case, DOA, DCP and total dead showed an overall mortality rate within the range reported in the literature [25]. In our study, the mortality rate for bovines was similar to the rates reported in Canada (0.011%) [16] and in Czechia (0.012%) [30]. Contrastingly, the mortality for sheep/goats was outside the range (0.006–0.018%) reported in literature [31].…”

“…Season and month have been identified as risk factors for transport-related mortality [29,30,33]. However, in our study, neither season nor month were significant.…”

Mortality in rabbits transported for slaughter

“…In fact, greater mortality rates (0.37%) were found only in broiler chickens (Vecerek, Voslarova, Conte, Vecerkova, & Bedanova, ). Otherwise, the preslaughter mortality of rabbits was greater than that recorded in swine (0.07%, Voslarova, Vecerek, Passantino, Chloupek, & Bedanova, ) and bovine animals (0.02%, Simova, Voslarova, Passantino, Bedanova, & Vecerek, ; Simova et al., ), as well as in poultry with the exception of broiler chickens, that is ducks (0.08%, Voslarova, Hytychova, Vecerek, Nenadovic, & Bedanova, ) and turkeys (0.15%, Machovcova et al., ). The overall high losses in rabbits found in our study are more likely to result from varying transport conditions than from rabbits' higher sensitivities to transport stress.…”

“…In turkeys (Machovcova et al., ) and ducks (Voslarova et al., ), the greatest death losses were found in summer. In cattle (Simova et al., ), spring was the season in which increased transport‐related mortality rates were recorded. These differences can be attributed to species‐specific sensitivity to heat or cold, as well as to different procedures and equipment used for their transport.…”

“…Depending on the type and level of stress, transported animals respond to transport by changes in behavior, changes in hematological and biochemical parameters, subclinical and clinical health disorders and ultimately death. The number of animals that die during transport or shortly after transport ends may serve as a critical indicator of animal welfare during the course of the transportation process (Simova, Voslarova, Vecerek, Passantino, & Bedanova, ). Only scarce evidence is available on mortality rates related to the commercial transport of rabbits.…”