Welfare issues associated with the transport of cull sows to slaughter

Transportation of Cattle and Pigs between EU Member States 2014-2018 - Can Data from TRACES be used to Create Overview and Inform about Potential Welfare Consequences?

Animal transport is debated due to welfare concerns. In this paper, data from 2014-2018 on animal transportation between EU member states (MS) (for slaughter, breeding, and production), are evaluated to create basis for discussion of TRACES database as tool to inform about pig and cattle welfare. Approximately 33million pigs were transported between EU MS peryear with considerable changes within categories.The majority of pigs was transported for production (57 to 73%), transportation for slaughter constituted 29% (34 to 25%), and the remaining (2-9%) were transported for breeding. Approximately 4 million cattle was transported peryear. The majority was transported for production (62 to 71%), 15-16% for slaughter, and the rest for breeding (23 to 14%). For each species and purpose category, 10 MS transporting the highest numbers are presented, suggesting acomplex underlying pattern with potential animal welfare consequences. Based on adiscussion of selected examples, however, we suggest that usefulness of TRACES as basis of an informed animal welfare evaluation would improve by including data from relevant animal types in addition to purpose categories.