Transportation of goats: effects on physiological stress responses and live weight loss.

Abstract

The management of food animals prior to slaughter influences both profitability and animal well-being. This experiment was conducted as a split-unit design to determine live weight shrink and stress responses in goats due to differences in stocking density during transportation and holding. A total of 150 Spanish does were transported on two different days (replicate) and held overnight (18 h) without feed in low- (LD) or high-density (HD) groups. On each day, 75 does were transported 2.5 h with floor spaces of .18 m2 and .37 m2/animal in LD (25 does) and HD (50 does) groups, respectively. The average temperatures in the trailer during transportation were 34.6 and 35 degrees C, respectively, on d 1 and 2. All animals were blood-sampled before loading (PRELOAD) and four does from each treatment were sampled immediately after loading (POSTLOAD). Animals were blood-sampled in holding pens either at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 18 h after transportation (time) to assess the time course (n = 8 does per time per replicate) of stress responses. Individual animals were weighed just before loading onto a trailer and after overnight holding to assess shrinkage. Treatment or treatment x time did not have a significant effect on any of the dependent variables studied. There were significant effects of time (P < .01) on plasma cortisol, glucose, and urea nitrogen (PUN) concentrations. Time also had significant effects (P < .01) on plasma creatine kinase (CK) activity, differential leukocyte counts (neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, and eosinophils), and ratio of neutrophils to lymphocytes (N:L). However, plasma leptin concentrations were not influenced by time. Cortisol concentrations increased at POSTLOAD sampling, peaked at 0 h, and decreased thereafter before spiking again at 18 h of holding. The PUN was higher at 18 h than at other time periods studied. Plasma glucose concentrations increased and remained at higher levels at 0, 1, and 2 h and began decreasing at 3 h, reaching PRELOAD levels at 18 h. Plasma CK kinase activity peaked at approximately 2 h after transportation. The N:L ratio was higher at all time periods after transportation than prior to starting the journey, indicating a prolonged effect of transportation stress on the immune system. The mean (+/- SE) shrinkage losses were 10.2 +/- .68 and 9.8 +/- .68 in HD and LD treatment groups, respectively. The results indicate that the stress responses of goats due to transportation begin decreasing within 3 h after transportation. However, prolonged holding periods without feed may increase stress responses and bring about metabolic changes.

Effects of Androgen on Plasma Levels of Adrenocorticotropic Hormone and Cortisol during Transportation in Goats

“…Transportation can be a strong stress for domestic animals [12,13] and it causes weight loss in goats [9] or dark cutting beef (DCB), which is an undesirable, dark, firm, and dry lean surface of beef in cattle [16]. Furthermore, the occurrence of DCB in steers is modulated by implantation of gonadal hormones [16].…”

A note on the effects of pre-slaughter operations of llamas (Lama glama) on the concentrations of some blood constituents related to stress and carcass quality

“…In agreement with the current result, Anderson et al (1999) and Zapata et al (2004) also reported a significant increase in plasma cortisol concentration due to transportation stress in guanacos (37.3 nmol L -1 ), finding that values returned to baseline 2 h post-transport (25.4 nmol L -1 ). Kannan et al (2000) found that cortisol values in goats decreased to the baseline level at 1 h after transportation, remained at that level during 18 h and increased again at 18 h probably due to feed deprivation stress. According to Tadich et al (2009) the increased cortisol concentration in lambs after transport is likely to be due to the stress of unloading, handling and bleeding procedure, more than to transport itself, especially considering that from the start of the unloading to the time of bleeding there was a 30 minute interval, as in this case also.…”

Effect of feeding and housing systems on rumen properties and plasma metabolite stress indicators in autochthonous Spanish Ojalada sheep

“…The blood was stored at 4 °C until centrifugation to obtain the plasma, and plasma was then aliquoted into Eppendorf tubes and frozen at -20 °C until it was thawed for further experimentation. Plasma glucose, lactate, cortisol, NEFAs and CK activity were analyzed according to the methods of Kannan et al (2000Kannan et al ( , 2002.…”

“…Elevated plasma levels of cortisol (Sevi et al, 2001), lactate and glucose (Kannan et al, 2000) are associated with stress. Similarly, other authors (Kannan et al, 2007) have suggested that the temperament and behavior of animals can cause variability in plasma concentration of CK.…”