Swine veterinarians are a vital resource for minimizing the incidence of stressed pigs during transport.

The swine industry faces difficult challenges in satisfying increasing consumer and retail sector demands while remaining competitive. The collective and coordinated efforts of veterinarians, scientists, and the entire hog value chain are needed to make this succeed. One area of particular concern is the need to reduce the incidence of stressed pigs during transport. Canada’s federal Health of Animals Regulations and Meat Inspection Regulations contain provisions for the protection of animals from undue suffering and injury during loading, transportation, and unloading, and while animals are at federally registered slaughter plants (1,2). In 2005 the Health of Animals Regulations were amended to clarify that non-ambulatory animals cannot be transported without undue suffering during the expected journey, except for veterinary treatment or diagnosis (3). Shortly thereafter, Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) veterinarians and inspectors began to raise concerns about stressed market pigs that are reluctant or refuse to move during or just after unloading at the slaughter plant, even though they are capable of standing. Pigs with no obvious injury, trauma, or disease that refuse to move, walk, or keep up with their contemporaries have been defined as fatigued pigs (4). They are in a state of metabolic acidosis with high blood lactate, low blood pH, and low bicarbonate values (5). These pigs exhibit any combination of increased body temperature, difficulty breathing, trembling, patchy skin discoloration, reluctance to move, recumbency, and in some cases death. Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspectors have observed that a number of pigs on the same trailer may arrive showing these signs or may become extremely distressed during or shortly after unloading. These extremely fatigued pigs are referred to as stressed pigs. The incidence is highest during hot weather. While action is taken at the slaughter plant to minimize animal suffering during and after unloading, improved on-farm preventive measures are needed. Although porcine stress syndrome is a known cause of this condition, it has been shown to occur in pigs that do not carry mutations in the porcine ryanodine receptor-1 (“halothane sensitivity”) gene (6,7). Other contributing factors at the farm may include nutrition and feed additives, feed withdrawal (8), health status, heavy market weights (9), facility design and mixing or pre-sorting (7,10,11), loading procedures and facilities (6,12–14), and high environmental temperatures and/or relative humidity (15). Combined stressors are likely to have a cumulative effect (6). The arrival of stressed pigs at Canadian slaughter plants is a growing concern with respect to animal welfare and humane transportation, in addition to the economic impact resulting from decreased carcass value or carcass loss and disposal costs. National data on the incidence of stressed pigs arriving at slaughter plants are not available. The annual percentage of pigs found dead on arrival at Canadian slaughter plants from 2003 to 2012 ranged from 0.07% to 0.08% (16). This equates to more than 14 000 pigs each year that are dead on arrival or that die shortly after unloading. Measures to prevent mortality may also help to reduce the incidence of stressed pigs on arrival at the slaughter plant.

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