| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 動物科學技術學研究所 === 107 === With the scale-intensive production of animal husbandry, whether animals feel stressed during transportation has gradually aroused the concern of the public. Thus, animal transportation has become an important issue in animal welfare discussion in recent years. The study aimed to investigate the transportation of commercial pigs in Southern Taiwan. The saliva samples were taken from several pigs randomly before loading, after loading and arrival at the meat market in each transportation. The cortisol level was tested via ELISA. The relationships between cortisol level and various stressors were analyzed via simple linear regression, multiple regression and nonlinear regression. Basal experiments were done before investigation, including recovery rate of saliva collection device, circadian rhythm of salivary cortisol in swine and response of salivary cortisol to stress in swine, in order to ensure the accuracy of investigation.
The results of basal experiments showed the saliva collection device in this study has acceptable recovery rate; peaks of circadian rhythm of salivary cortisol are at 09:00, 11:00 and 15:00; salivary cortisol in swine can instantly reflect the degree of stress. The results of investigation of transportation showed no significant correlation between cortisol change after loading and stressors, for example, the use of electric sticks (P=0.9184), loading density (P=0.5294) and loading time (P=0.6760). Same results were found between loading density and cortisol change after transport (P=0.2456). Similarly, no significant correlation was found between cortisol change after transport and transport time (P=0.5520). However, there was a significant correlation between time and cortisol change after transport when the duration is between 35 to 70 minutes (R2=0.5699, P=0.0187). Also, a significant correlation was found between cortisol change after loading and after transport (R2=0.3947, P=0.0161). There is an almost significant nonlinear correlation between total time and cortisol changes (P=0.0871).
This study focused on the current status of swine transportation in Taiwan. Interestingly, during the process and the handling of transportation, the use of electric sticks and loading density, the stressors that assumed to compromise animal welfare, have no significant correlation with cortisol changes in pigs. Whether the pigs are able to adapt in the situation of transportation requires further studies. Correlation between cortisol change after loading and after transport showed part of pigs are not sensitive to loading stress.
In conclusion, it’s sure that cortisol change after transport is related to cortisol change after loading although the main stressors that exactly affect loading and transport are unclear. Good animal care should be provided when loading pigs into vehicle, in order to improve animal welfare during transportation.
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