Association between in-transit loss, internal trailer temperature, and distance traveled by Ontario market hogs |
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| Authors: | Charles Haley Catherine E. Dewey Tina Widowski Robert Friendship |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Population Medicine (Haley, Dewey, Friendship), and Department of Animal and Poultry Science (Widowski), University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1 |
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| Abstract: | An observational study was conducted from July to October 2004 to determine the association between in-transit losses of swine and internal trailer temperature after controlling for loading density, trip distance, herd size, and random trip effect. A convenience sample of 3 trucking companies was used to collect temperature, relative humidity, and global positioning data for 104 trips that delivered 21 834 pigs from 371 producers to Ontario abattoirs. The association between in-transit loss and trailer temperature was determined using the 90th percentiles of internal temperature for each trip. Average loading density was 0.36 m2/100 kg pig (range 0.28 to 0.50 m2/100 kg pig). Average in-transit loss was 0.12%; however, 94% of producers experienced no losses. As the 90th percentile of internal trailer temperature increased from a range of 8.6°C to 23.3°C to a range of 23.4°C to 26.1°C, average in-transit loss ratio increased approximately 3-fold, with an additional 2-fold increase as the range increased from 26.2°C to 28.9°C to 29.0°C to 30.5°C. As the 90th percentile of temperature increased by 1°C over the full range of temperatures in this study, in-transit loss was expected to increase 1.26 times. The in-transit loss was expected to decrease 0.81 times for each 50-km increase in distance traveled between the farm and the abattoir. |
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