Survey on animal welfare and protection during transport in Northern Italy

The issue of humane treatment of food animals has received increased attention worldwide in the last years. Evidence suggests that animal stressing may damage meat quality, and lead to more contamination and cross-contamination with pathogens as it may lead to increased microorganisms shedding. The welfare and health of animals can be substantially affected by transport. The loading and unloading represent a source of stress for animals and the conditions of live animals during transport affect carcass and meat quality traits. The EU legislation on animal welfare during transport has been widely modified in the last three decades to improve the protection of animals during transport. The last EU provision is the Council Regulation (EC) n. 1/2005, adopted since 5th January 2007. The Regulation identifies the chain of all those involved in animal transport and related operations and introduces obligations regarding animal welfare extended to any operator concerned with the transport. The Regulation introduces new and more efficient monitoring tools and much stricter rules for long journeys, including a substantial upgrading of vehicle standards. The aim of this study was to assess the enforcement of the Council Regulation (EC) n. 1/2005 in Northern Italy. The research has been carried out by a survey involving 364 animal trucking enterprises, located in the Emilia Romagna region, which were asked to answer a specific questionnaire drawn up for this study. The results show that the animal trucking enterprises comply in good measure with the new European animal welfare Regulation. Road vehicles for long journeys are equipped with adequate ventilation and temperature monitoring and recording systems, connections to water supply during stops, partitions to separate compartments. Systems such as spraying for hydrating pigs are occasionally missing, in particular in small enterprises. The provisions for loading density are always observed whereas loading and unloading operations last too long. The participation to training courses appears very limited or lacking.