Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T02:28:13.343Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Noise and vehicular motion as potential stressors during the transport of sheep

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

S. J. G. Hall ,
S. M. Kirkpatrick ,
D. M. Lloyd  and
D. M. Broom
S. J. G. Hall
Affiliation:
Animal Welfare and Human-Animal Interactions Group, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ES
S. M. Kirkpatrick
Affiliation:
Animal Welfare and Human-Animal Interactions Group, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ES
D. M. Lloyd
Affiliation:
MAFF Laboratory of Welfare and Behaviour, The Babraham Institute, Cambridge CB2 4AT
D. M. Broom
Affiliation:
Animal Welfare and Human-Animal Interactions Group, Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ES
Get access

Abstract

During three journeys of 15 h in a lorry and two sets of experiments in a trailer, the relative importance of ambient noise and vehicular motion were assessed by measurements of salivary cortisol concentration, heart rate and behaviour. Mean sound levels in the lorry were approximately 96 dbA with occasional episodes at 103 dbA. Vehicular motion was assessed in terms of numbers and magnitude of acceleration events registered by a triaxial accelerometer. The three lorry journeys showed, respectively, that heart rate was correlated with vehicular motion when sheep were loosely stocked (0·41 m2 per sheep) but not when they were tightly stocked (0·28 m2 per sheep); that heart rate sometimes tended to increase when ambient sound was greater and that the effect of sound was not as consistent as that of vehicular motion. In the first trailer experiment, salivary cortisol response was the same whether sheep confined in a quiet stationary trailer (60 dbA) were or were not exposed to extra noise (90 dbA) while heart rate was higher in the former condition. In the second trailer experiment when the trailer was being towed on public roads with or without extra noise (92·3 and 100·5 dbA respectively), heart rate and salivary cortisol concentration were both elevated compared with control sheep in a pen but the extra noise had no consistent effect. The sheep showed no orientation away from the noise source, nor was there any difference in their expression of a behaviour (standing with the head below the level of the shoulders) which could indicate discomfort. Hence vehicular motion can result in poor welfare in sheep, especially at loose stocking density but ambient noise was not found to have a consistent effect.

Keywords

sheepstresstransport
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Science , Volume 67 , Issue 3 , December 1998 , pp. 467 - 473
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anil, M. H., Ozgen, O., Warriss, P. D., Knowles, T. G., Brown, S. N., McKinstry, J. L., Edwards, J. E., Adams, S. J. M. and Rodway, R. G. 1993. Noise and stress responses in sheep and pigs. Animal Production 56: 436 (abstr.).Google Scholar
Baldock, N. M., Sibly, R. M. and Penning, P. D. 1988. Behaviour and seasonal variation in heart rate in domestic sheep, Ovis aries. Animal Behaviour. 36: 35–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradshaw, R. H., Hall, S. J. G. and Broom, D. M. 1996. Behavioural and cortisol response of pigs and sheep during transport. Veterinary Record. 138: 233–234.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Broom, D. M., Goode, J. A., Hall, S. J. G., Lloyd, D. M. and Parrott, R. F. 1996. Hormonal and physiological effects of a 15 h road journey in sheep: comparison with the response to loading, handling and penning in the absence of transport. British Veterinary Journal. 152: 593–604.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cockram, M. S., Kent, J. E., Goddard, P. J., Waran, N. K., McGilp, I. M., Jackson, R. E., Muwanga, G. M. and Prytherch, S. 1996. Effect of space allowance during transport on the behavioural and physiological responses of lambs during and after transport. Animal Science. 62: 461–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, T. R., Trunkfield, H. R., Zanella, A. J. and Booth, W. D. 1989. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for cortisol in the saliva of man and domestic farm animals. Journal of Endocrinology 92: R13–R16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ewbank, R. 1976. The effects of sonic booms on farm animals. Veterinary Annual. 17: 296–306.Google Scholar
Helwig, J. T. and Council, K. A. 1979. SAS user's guide, 1979 edition. Statistical Analysis Systems Institute, Cary, NC.Google Scholar
Hopster, H. and Blokhuis, H. J. 1994. Validation of a heart-rate monitor for measuring a stress response in dairy cows. Canadian Journal of Animal Science 74: 465–474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knowles, T. G., Warriss, P. D., Brown, S. N., Kestin, S. C., Rhind, S. M., Edwards, J. E., Anil, M. H. and Dolan, S. K. 1993. Long distance transport of lambs and the time needed for subsequent recovery. Veterinary Record. 133: 286–293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore, P. G. and Edwards, D. E. 1965. Standard statistical calculations. Pitman, London.Google Scholar
Randall, J. M., Stiles, M. A., Geers, R., Schutte, A., Christensen, L. and Bradshaw, R. H. 1996. Vibration on pig transporters: implications for reducing stress. In New information on welfare and meat quality of pigs as related handling, transport and lairage conditions (ed. Schütte, A.), proceedings of the EU seminar, 29–30 June 1995, Mariensee. Landbauforschung Völkenrode, suppl. 166: 143–160.Google Scholar
Sokal, R. R. and Rohlf, F. J. 1981. Biometry, second edition, p. 722. Freeman, San Francisco,Google Scholar
Tailing, J. C., Waran, N. K., Wathes, C. M. and Lines, J. A. 1996. Behavioural and physiological responses of pigs to sound. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 48: 187–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weisenberger, M. E., Krausman, P. R., Wallace, M. C., Young, D. W. de and Maughan, O. E. 1996. Effects of simulated jet aircraft noise on heart rate and behavior of desert ungulates. Journal of Wildlife Management. 60: 52–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar