Agricultural Sciences

Penn State Researchers Look To Make Livestock Better Travelers

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Want to make sure that your livestock weather a trip with less weight loss? Make sure they have plenty of "Gatorade," according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

Lowell Wilson, professor of animal science, teamed with project assistant Darron Smith to combat the significant weight loss that occurs in calves, pigs and lambs when they are transported from farm to livestock auction to the farm of their new owners.

"All animals will lose weight when transported -- that's known as shrinkage," Smith explains. "Weight loss can approach 10 percent in transported animals, due to numerous environmental and physiological factors. We want to minimize this shrinkage, which results from the stress of being handled and transported." Smith found that providing livestock with electrolyte-restoring liquids (similar to sports drinks for humans) before and during transportation can reduce shrinkage.

"Offering these liquids apparently increases the amount of fluid the animals consume while they're waiting for sale at the auction, or even before they're loaded on the truck at their original farm," Smith says. "This may be because the animal has a nutritional requirement for some of the elements contained in the electrolyte mixture, or it may be because the mixture is flavored. But increased liquid consumption tends to cut down on stress and weight loss."

For the experiment, scientists transported the animals 50 miles in the morning, kept them for four hours in unfamiliar pens, then transported them another 50 miles. All animals were weighed immediately before and after their trips, and again 24 and 48 hours later. Other data were collected, including feed and liquid consumed, body temperature, heart rate and respiration.

Wilson and Smith also videotaped the animals during transport, tracking such behaviors as loss of balance, aggression and position changes. Researchers also kept track of eating, drinking and other behavior during the four-hour holding period.

The animals were divided into three groups: one group wasn't transported at all, a second was transported with access to water and a third was transported with access to a standard electrolyte-enhanced liquid drink. While the water-fed animals spent more time lying or standing in the pen, the electrolyte-fed animals showed increased frequency of eating and drinking. And, while all animals lost weight during transport, electrolyte-fed animals tended to lose less weight than water-fed animals.

"We think that an increase in liquids and electrolyte consumption may promote feed consumption during stressful events like handling and transporting to auctions," Wilson says. "Electrolyte-fed animals didn't demonstrate the fasting and binge-eating seen in water-fed animals, so they didn't have the large weight losses and subsequent large feed intakes that water-fed animals did. This results in animals that maintain a more constant weight through the transportation process."

The monogastric animals (pigs) showed the greatest benefit from the electrolytes, losing even less weight than the ruminants (lambs and calves) after transportation. Wilson says the benefits were especially evident in hot weather.

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EDITORS: For more information, contact Lowell Wilson at 814-863-3659.

Contacts: Gary Abdullah gxa2@psu.edu 814-863-2708 814-865-1068 fax

Last Updated March 19, 2009