Livestock hauliers' attitudes, knowledge and current practices towards animal welfare, occupational wellbeing and transport risk factors: A Mexican survey
Por:
Valadez-Noriega M., Estévez-Moreno L.X., Rayas-Amor A.A., Rubio-Lozano M.S., Galindo F., Miranda-de la Lama G.C.
Publicada:
15 nov 2018
Resumen:
Mexico is the 7th largest producer of beef in the world. The livestock
transport is a vital component of today's world agrifood economy that
directly impacts on the development of animal production, animal
welfare, public policies, labor regulations, food safety, markets and
consumers. In this study two aims were established; the first aim was to
identify the attitudes and perceptions of commercial hauliers towards
animal welfare and their influence on the accident risks. The second aim
was to characterize the current practices of the commercial cattle
transport in Mexico and to detect the risk factors for animal welfare
and hauliers' wellbeing. The interviews were conducted individually at
the hauliers' rest points, sanitary inspection points localized along
the Federal Highway 57 or at the companies' offices of cattle
transportation. We used univariate, bivariate and multivariate
statistics based on a hierarchical cluster analysis. The results showed
that cattle transport in Mexico is characterized for long travel
distances because the cattle departed from farms in the southern states
of Mexico to the feedlots located in central and northern regions of the
country. The journeys of short and middle distances departed from the
feedlots to the slaughterhouses. The hauliers' characteristics were: age
from 29 to 48 years old, elementary or secondary studies completed, 65%
of hauliers mentioned six years of experience in cattle transport, they
learned about cattle transportation by means of a family member who was
already engaged in this activity. The cluster analysis identified four
hauliers' groups: groups 1 and 3 were related to animal welfare and
groups 2 and 4 less related to animal welfare. This study showed that
empathy towards cattle was a key element in identifying hauliers at risk
of road accidents during cattle transportation. Years of experience in
cattle transport played an important role in emphasizing closer
perceptions towards welfare. Considering current trends towards
increased transport times and logistics stops, there is a need to
develop systems of welfare assessment and decision -making that provide
tools and protocols that can minimize the biological cost to animals and
hauliers, which may have been underestimated in the past.
Filiaciones:
Valadez-Noriega M.:
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
Estévez-Moreno L.X.:
Institute of Agricultural and Rural Sciences (ICAR), Autonomous University of Mexico State (UAEM), State of México, Toluca, Mexico
Rayas-Amor A.A.:
Department of Food Science, Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM-Lerma), Lerma de VilladaState of México, Mexico
Rubio-Lozano M.S.:
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
Galindo F.:
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico
Miranda-de la Lama G.C.:
Department of Food Science, Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM-Lerma), Lerma de VilladaState of México, Mexico
Aragonese Agency for Research and Development (ARAID), Agrifood Institute of Aragon (IA2), Department of Animal Production and Food Science, Faculty of Veterinary, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
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