Abstract
With the increasing concern of animal welfare among consumers, the idea of promoting animal welfare has prevailed among various administrative bodies and producers' groups worldwide, not only those limited to academic societies. Therefore, we studied the adverse effects on animals during transportation and organized their evaluation indexes in this report, using the relatively-recent studies of sheep transportation since 1990. The stresses imposed on animals are classified into three categories : 1) physical stress, 2) physiological stress, and 3) mental stress. The physical stresses involve fatigue caused primarily during loading and unloading, postural positioning, and maintaining balance during transportation. The physiological stresses include : starvation, dehydration, injuries and disease, the reactions caused naturally by changes in body temperature and physiological function in animals. The mental stresses include the ones perceived by sensory organs of animals and the desires for eating and drinking. For the purpose of measuring these stresses, behavior and physiological indexes are used. Blood creatine kinase levels and blood lactate levels are used as indexes showing fatigue. A decrease in body weight, plasma glucose level, plasma free fatty acid levels, plasma urea levels, plasma, β-hydroxybutyric acid levels, blood total protein levels, blood total albumin, blood cell volume in blood, and blood osmolarity are all used as indexes showing starvation and dehydration. An increase in heart rate and an increase of discharging volumes of catecholamine and cortisol in the blood are used as indexes showing anti-stress response. Lastly, plasma free fatty acid levels and blood glucose levels also are used as indexes showing anti-stress response. It is considered to be important to improve the farm animal welfare trend in Japan and to introduce legislation for the purpose of realizing this goal in the future by broadly investigating the adverse effects on sheep during their transportation and taking into consideration the above factors together with geological and climatic characteristics in Japan.
