Buckle up! ⚠️

🚛 Okay, swine don’t wear seatbelts, we know – but how else can they have safer rides? That’s what the Prairie Swine Center, the Ontario Veterinary College, and the University of Saskatchewan, in Canada, tried to answer with a retrospective analysis of the risk factors for weaned piglet mortality during transportation. The results? The trailer type, the distance traveled, and the temperature are among the key factors that influence the death rate. 

     •  Pot trailers performed the poorest when compared to other trailer designs.

      •  Longer trips with multiple pick ups also had higher mortality rates. 

     •  Surprisingly enough, cooler temperatures had the highest mortality rates, whereas previous studies had shown that the higher the thermometers hit, the greater the challenges. However… the study took into account the January-February below zero temperatures of Canada – which differs from countries where the winter is not so freakishly cold. 

🔍 All in all, the results will definitely help define best practices for transporting weaner pigs. Read more details here.