This little piggy went to market

Pig transport losses         

[JULY 18, 2005]  URBANA -- For many years, pork producers have known a certain number of their pigs would either die or be injured during transport from farm to slaughter; however, an increase in those rates during the 1990s coupled with concerns about animal welfare have led to a University of Illinois research project addressing the problem.

Led by Mike Ellis, professor of animal sciences and one of his Ph.D. students, Matt Ritter, the two-year project is studying the transport of slaughter-weight pigs under both commercial and experimental model conditions.

"We've been working with commercial transporters and slaughterhouses to monitor how pigs fare throughout the transportation process," Ellis explained. "We're looking at the incidence of losses and how and why they occur.

"At the same time, we are conducting in-house studies using experimental models that mimic the events of transportation, with the idea of determining what types of intervention might reduce incidence of death or injury."

Both the death and injury rates are around .025 percent and stem from a number of conditions that interact to stress the pigs, Ellis said.

"We've found that one contributing factor can be the intensity with which pigs are handled during loading onto trucks," he said. "We are trying to develop handling protocols that would reduce those problems.

"We are also looking at the design of the buildings through which the pigs are moved to see if we can make the movement easier and less stressful for the animals."

Studies on the amount of floor space in the trucks that transport the pigs have led to two seemingly contradictory findings.

"With too little floor space per pig, the losses are high, but with too much floor space per pig, losses are also high," said Ellis. "We're setting up video monitoring equipment in the trucks to try to determine why this occurs."

Ellis speculates that too much space may actually lead to more jostling during travel and, hence, more stress on the animals.

"We're conducting experiments at different times of the year to monitor the seasonal effects because pigs go to market year-round," he added.

Ellis and Ritter are also looking at truck trailer design to determine if different types of trailers might alleviate or increase the problem.

Final results are about a year away, he noted.

Funding for the project comes from the National Pork Board. Assistance is being provided by Maschoff Inc., a transportation firm, and the Excel meatpacking plant in Beardstown.

[News release from the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences]