Effects of floor space during transport and journey time on indicators of stress and transport losses of market-weight pigs

: The effects of floor space on the trailer and journey time during transport from the farm to the packing plant on indicators of stress (open-mouth breathing, muscle tremors, and skin discoloration) and on the incidence of transport losses (dead on arrival, nonambulatory, noninjured, and nonambulatory, injured) were evaluated in a study involving 160 loads of market-weight pigs (BW 124.7 ± 4.38 kg) using a split-plot design with a 2 × 6 factorial arrangement of treatments: 1) journey time [main plot; short ( 0.05) on the incidence of dead and nonambulatory, injured pigs, or on total transport losses. There were interactions (P 0.05) of journey time. The incidence of open-mouth breathing for the 3 smallest floor spaces was greater (P 0.05) of journey time for the 3 greatest floor spaces. The frequency of skin discoloration was greater (P < 0.001) for pigs transported at the 2 smallest floor spaces compared with the other 4 floor spaces. In summary, short journey time increased the frequency of indicators of stress after unloading at the plant for pigs transported at smaller floor spaces and also increased the incidence of nonambulatory, noninjured pigs at 2 of the 3 smallest floor spaces. However, neither transport floor space nor journey time had an effect on total losses.