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Between November 2016 and October 2017, 23 horse transports from 18 collection points to two slaughterhouses in Argentina and one in Uruguay were monitored. The goal of this study was to characterize the current practices in commercial horse transports and to detect potential threats to horse welfare. A total of 596 horses were transported over an average distance of 295 ± 250 km. Average transport duration was 294 ± 153 min. The infrastructure did not always promote smooth loading, but the amount of horses that refused to enter the trailers was limited. In each loading space, a camera was mounted to observe horse behaviour during the journey. Ambient temperature and relative humidity (RH) were recorded every five minutes in each loading space. In 14 of the 23 transports, the maximum temperature rose above 25 °C and the average temperature was over 25 °C during six transports. The average temperature humidity index (THI) exceeded 72 during six transports. The average stocking density was 1.40 ± 0.33 m 2 per horse, or 308 ± 53 kg/m 2 . The degree of aggression differed between the front and rear loading space. Stocking density, environmental parameters, trailer characteristics, and transport duration and distance did not influence aggressiveness.

Transport and associated handling can have adverse effects on pig welfare. The transport of fattening pigs can cause economic losses by virtue of mortality, skin damage, and the general deterioration of meat quality. A total of 4507 fattening pigs were transported from a farm to a commercial slaughterhouse (distance 110 km) in 128 transports. Skin damage was visually assessed in the slaughter line in different parts of the carcass, i.e., shoulder, middle, and ham, using a 4-point scale. The incidence of skin damage was most prevalent (31%) in the shoulder region of the pig carcass. Sex, wind velocity, regrouping, transport combination, transport compartment, lairage time, and ham angle affected the skin damage incidence. In conclusion, scoring the incidence of skin damage is an indicator of the level of welfare exercised during transport and the slaughterhouse conditions. Furthermore, skin damage monitoring can be used to determine critical control points in the transport procedure. Given the importance from both a commercial and welfare perspective, it should be a powerful incentive to handle fattening pigs with care during the transport process and the lairage period.

In practice, unfamiliar pigs are frequently mixed prior to loading in order to obtain groups of uniform weight and to adjust the group size to the dimensions of the trailer compartments. Mixing pigs induces aggressive interactions to establish a new social rank. Fighting results in skin lesions and pre-slaughter stress and, in turn, reduced meat quality. A study was performed to compare the effect of non-regrouping and regrouping at fattening (at 80 kg and kept till slaughter), loading and lairage. A total of 1332 pigs were included over 30 transports from one pig farm to one slaughterhouse (110 km). Skin lesions were determined on 1314 carcasses. Meat quality was measured on 620 pigs. The non-regrouped pigs had fewer skin lesions and better meat quality than the pigs regrouped at loading or in lairage. Pigs mixed at 80 kg at the farm had, in general, a comparable amount of skin lesions and comparable meat quality as the non-mixed group. If mixing is unavoidable, due to large within-group weight variations, mixing at 80 kg can be an alternative to reduce skin lesions at slaughter and to optimise meat quality., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.