Transport of horses for slaughter in Iceland

Abstract

There is interest in the transportation of horses (Equus caballus) to slaughter and a need to assess the welfare implications of this practice. Forty-six loads of 7-35 horses transported for 0.33 to 3.10 h to a slaughter plant in Iceland were studied. Adults and foals were transported together and then placed in separate pens overnight in the lairage. This acted as a weaning procedure for the foals. Between one and eleven horses per load (59 adults and 129 foals) were observed during loading and at the slaughter plant, blood was sampled at slaughter and carcases were observed. No wounds were observed before transport, but 1.6% of horses had small, superficial bleeding wounds after transport. The respiration rate was greater after, compared to before, transport. Blood lactate concentration measured after lairage and slaughter was greater than normal in both adults and foals, 13% of adults and 20% of foals had a blood glucose concentration lower than normal, and 58% of adults and 25% of foals had a plasma total protein concentration greater than normal. Forty-four percent of adults and 17% of foals were bruised. There were no pre-existing conditions affecting the fitness of the horses for transportation. The effects of transport on the physiological responses and the severity of bruising were relatively minor. However, the results suggested that the handling, transport and lairage of the horses resulted in injury and signs of exertion or stress that were not compatible with optimal management practices. The mild dehydration in adults might have been associated with restricted access to drinking water during lairage of lactating mares. Controlled studies are required to identify the specific practices used in Iceland that result in injury and dehydration.

Horse Injury during Non-Commercial Transport: Findings from Researcher-Assisted Intercept Surveys at Southeastern Australian Equestrian Events

“…The movement of horses to slaughter in non-articulated livestock trucks has been associated with a high rate of injury [16]. In the current study the rates of injury reporting were not significantly higher for those that move horses in trucks than those that use trailers.…”

“…These are difficult to separate for the purposes of factor analysis, creating a “risk event” for horse injury that brings together interactions among driver, horse and vehicle factors [10]. A recent report on the transport of inexperienced horses on journeys of short temporal duration to slaughter found as many as 44% of adult horses were injured, largely attributable to poor management practices [16]. In contrast, the median number of journeys in the current study was greater, presumably increasing the cumulative risk exposure, particularly for unloading and loading injuries.…”

“…Non-commercial horse trailers do not require specific certification of their suitability for use for transporting animals. Whereas there have been many studies of transport-related injuries sustained during the commercial transportation of horses [2,4,12,15,16], there are few peer reviewed publication on the risks of injury during non-commercial transport by owners [12,17]. Equine injuries resulting from commercial transportation have been attributed to horse-associated, vehicle design and driver-associated factors [5,12,18].…”

Infrared Thermography for the Ante Mortem Detection of Bruising in Horses Following Transport to a Slaughter Plant

“…The threshold temperature was calculated by obtaining spot surface temperature measurements for each horse at three locations on the neck, dorsal pelvic, and flank regions at a distance of 5 m (Supplementary Figure 1). The three locations chosen were based on the approach described by Soroko et al (16) and a pilot study conducted by the authors of skin temperature measurement by DT of healthy horses outdoors concluding that temperature readings were more stable at these three locations (17). The three spot temperatures were averaged and the value entered into the camera as the threshold surface temperature for that particular horse to detect thermal anomalies.…”

“…Determination of the latter would have required the operators to permit dissection of the carcasses. Bruising was assessed immediately after slaughter using a modified subjective scoring system based on an adaptation of the Australian Carcass Bruise Scoring System for cattle, accounting for other possible discolorations (18, 19).…”