Abstract
BackgroundSlaughter reindeer are exposed to stress caused by gathering, handling, loading and unloading, and by conditions in vehicles during transport. These stress factors can lead to compromised welfare and trauma such as bruises or fractures, aspiration of rumen content, and abnormal odour in carcasses, and causing condemnations in meat inspection and lower meat quality. We investigated the statistical association of slaughter transport distance with these indices using meat inspection data from years 2004–2016, including inspection of 669,738 reindeer originating from Finnish reindeer herding areas.ResultsIncreased stress and decreased welfare of reindeer, as indicated by higher incidence of carcass condemnation due to bruises or fractures, aspiration of rumen content, or abnormal odour, were positively associated with systems involving shorter transport distances to abattoirs. Significant differences in incidence of condemnations were also detected between abattoirs and reindeer herding cooperatives.ConclusionsThis study indicates that in particular the short-distance transports of reindeer merit more attention. While the results suggest that factors associated with long distance transport, such as driver education, truck design, veterinary supervision, and specialist equipment, may be favourable to reducing pre-slaughter stress in reindeer when compared with short distance transport systems, which occur in a variety of vehicle types and may be done by untrained handlers. Further work is required to elucidate the causal factors to the current results.
Highlights
Slaughter reindeer are exposed to stress caused by gathering, handling, loading and unloading, and by conditions in vehicles during transport
The transport distance to the abattoir was negatively correlated with the number of condemnations due to bruises/fractures (Spearman’s rank correlation rs = −0.20, N = 4208, P < 0.0005), aspiration of rumen content, and abnormal odour
Our results indicate that the studied indicators of compromised physical welfare of slaughter reindeer are associated with the distance of transportation for slaughter: short transport distances were associated with more compromised reindeer welfare and carcass quality
Summary
Slaughter reindeer are exposed to stress caused by gathering, handling, loading and unloading, and by conditions in vehicles during transport. These stress factors can lead to compromised welfare and trauma such as bruises or fractures, aspiration of rumen content, and abnormal odour in carcasses, and causing condemnations in meat inspection and lower meat quality. Reindeer were slaughtered on the field during round-ups, and no transportation to slaughter houses was needed. In addition to transporting to slaughter, vehicle transportation is occasionally used when reindeer are moved between pastures, or to supplementary feeding sites or corrals for winter months. Helicopters, snow mobiles and quad bikes (ATVs) are used as aids when herding and gathering reindeer for summer or autumn (slaughter) round-ups
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