Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Transportation of pigs might be a welfare problem. Stress during and after transportation can negatively affect the meat quality or cause carcass damages, which leads to major economic losses every year. The transportation chain can be divided into several stages; loading, transport and unloading. This literature review focuses on unloading of pigs from a transport. When arriving at an abattoir pigs can be fatigued and need to be as smoothly unloaded as possible. The unloading ramp is a major obstacle for pigs and a high angle of slope causes elevated heart rate and longer unloading times. Unloading system, noise, shadows and darkness can cause pigs to stop or hesistate. Pigs refusing to move can lead to rough handling by electric goads from personnel. Electric goad use is very stressful for pigs and cause elevated heart rate and negative changes in blood parameters, which results in carcass damage and bad meat quality. Improvement of pigs´ welfare can be accomplished through design adjustments of unloading systems, unloading facilities or development of new equipment like the container system. Less handling moments together with unloading at ground level implies that the container system is better for pigs´ welfare. In order to develop unloading systems there is a need for further research together with education of personnal to better understand the behaviour of pigs.