SAC Research

Over fifty delegates attended the event, representing a range of European research centers, all UK Governments as well as Ministries in Spain, France and the Netherlands. A key visitor, full of praise was Dr Andrea Gavinelli – Head of Animal Welfare and Feed, Health and Consumer Protection, European Directorate General.

The welfare of livestock during road transportation has been a controversial issue of public and political concern and is the subject of extensive existing and proposed legislation. Between 2006 and the present, SAC, ADAS, the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid and a UK Animal Transport Consultancy have been involved in a successful Defra sponsored research project entitled “Transcontinental road transport of breeder pigs – effects of hot climates”.

A number of experimental journeys on commercial trucks, provided by an animal transport company from the Netherlands, were undertaken between the UK and southern Spain. The study was designed in order that the major differences between the journeys undertaken, over a 5-month summer period, would be the weather conditions in transit with particular focus upon the temperature regimes and profiles to which the animals were exposed. In this way the stress imposed on the animals and there resulting welfare status could be assessed and the thermal conditions likely to induce stress identified and defined.

It was also agreed that if “transport is done well, on appropriate vehicles, consistent with current legislation”, then there is little risk of welfare problems due to the elevated ambient temperatures routinely encountered during European export journeys.  Current commercial practice avoids long journeys during periods of extreme temperatures and coupled with the adequacy of current temperature limits this should afford good protection to pigs in transit under normal summer conditions. 
 
Dr. Andrea Gavinelli from the European Commission spoke in the afternoon session, praising the efforts of the research team and complimenting them on the relevance and value of the findings.  Dr. Gavinelli said the pending, future reviews and revisions of the European Transport Regulations would benefit from this approach and emphasised the value of the outputs of the studies described to the Workshop.

The Workshop was closed with a presentation by David Pritchard of Defra who echoed the views of Andrea Gavinelli and stressed the strong policy theme of all Defra-supported animal welfare research.

The other members of the research team were Mr. Peter Kettlewell of ADAS, Professor Morris Villarroel of the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid and Mr. Eddie Harper MBE, a livestock transport consultant form Somerset.

A more detailed report with Andrea Gavinelli's remarks are attached.