Causes, effects of pig stress during transportation

Stress imposed on pigs during transport is both an animal welfare and a meat quality issue. It can be so high and result in animal losses due to death, injuries or fatigue and ultimately poor pork quality. Animal losses, currently defined as dead and non-ambulatory pigs, are most commonly observed during unloading at the packing plant, but can occur at any stage of the marketing process from loading at the farm to stunning at the plant. Death losses are usually defined as ‘dead on arrival’