title: Season, Transport Duration and Trailer Compartment Effects on Blood Stress Indicators in Pigs: Relationship to Environmental, Behavioral and Other Physiological Factors, and Pork Quality Traits.
abstract: The objective of this study was to assess the effects of the season, travel duration and trailer compartment location on blood creatine-kinase (CK), lactate and cortisol concentrations in 384 pigs and assess their relationships with trailer temperature, heart rate and gastrointestinal tract temperature (GTT), behavior, carcass damage scores and meat quality. Blood CK was greater in pigs transported in summer (p= 0.02), after 18 h transportation (p< 0.001) and in pigs located in C4, C5 and C10 (p= 0.002). In winter, the concentration of blood lactate was higher (p= 0.04) in pigs transported for 6 h in C5. Pigs located in C10 showed higher (p= 0.01) concentration of cortisol than those transported for 18h in C4 in summer. The highest correlations were between blood cortisol and GTT (r= 0.53;p< 0.001), and between blood CK and GTT (r= 0.41;p< 0.001), truck temperature (r= 0.42;p< 0.001), and pHuin thelongissimusmuscle (r= 0.41;p< 0.001). In conclusion, although increased blood cortisol and CK levels appear to indicate a physical stress condition in transported pigs, the weak to moderate correlations with environmental and other animal welfare indicators suggest that blood stress parameters can only be used as a complementary measurement in the assessment of the pigs' response to transport stress.
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Sherbrooke Research and Development Centre, Sherbrooke, QC J1M 0C8, Canada. robertasommavilla@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sommavilla
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Sherbrooke Research and Development Centre, Sherbrooke, QC J1M 0C8, Canada. luigi.faucitano@arc.gc.ca.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Faucitano
authors.affiliation: Prairie Swine Centre, Saskatoon, SK S7H 5N9, Canada. hgonyou@shaw.ca.
authors.forename: Harold
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gonyou
authors.affiliation: Prairie Swine Centre, Saskatoon, SK S7H 5N9, Canada. yolande.seddon@usask.ca.
authors.forename: Yolande
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Seddon
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada. rbergero@uoguelph.ca.
authors.forename: Renée
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bergeron
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Biosciences, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada. twidowsk@uoguelph.ca.
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Widowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A2, Canada. trever.crowe@usask.ca.
authors.forename: Trever
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Crowe
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada. laurie.connor@umanitoba.ca.
authors.forename: Laurie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Connor
authors.affiliation: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Sherbrooke Research and Development Centre, Sherbrooke, QC J1M 0C8, Canada. marinabergoli@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Marina Bergoli
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Scheeren
authors.affiliation: Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Pratelstvi 815, 104 00 Prague-Uhrineves, Czech Republic. goumon.sebastien@vuzv.cz.
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goumon
authors.affiliation: Prairie Swine Centre, Saskatoon, SK S7H 5N9, Canada. jab651@mail.usask.ca.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brown
keywords: behavior; blood parameters; body temperature; heart rate; meat quality; pigs; season; stress response; transport time