The effect of road and sea transport on inflammatory, adrenocortical, metabolic and behavioural responses of weanling heifers

Table 1 Changes in rectal body temperature (°C) in control and transported (RT and ULT) animals (n = 20 animals/treatment)

Variable	d 0 pre-transport	d 2 Arrival in French lairage	D 3 post-12 h lairage	d 4 arrival in Spain	d 6 post-transport	d 8 post-transport	d 10 post-transport	d 34 post-transport
Control	39.5 ± 0.15^ax	39.5 ± 0.13^abx	39.7 ± 0.15^abx	40.3 ± 0.15^bx	39.6 ± 0.14^abx	39.5 ± 0.15^abx	39.5 ± 0.59^abx	39.0 ± 0.12^abx
RT	39.2 ± 0.11^ax	39.4 ± 0.14^abx	39.0 ± 0.20^aby	39.9 ± 0.19^bx	39.0 ± 0.10^aby	39.6 ± 0.12^bx	39.6 ± 0.15^abx	39.4 ± 0.12^aby
ULT	39.2 ± 0.13^ax	39.7 ± 0.17^bx	39.1 ± 0.18^aby	40.1 ± 0.19^bx	39.1 ± 0.14^aby	39.6 ± 0.18^abx	39.7 ± 0.22^abx	39.3 ± 0.12^abxy

The values are expressed as mean (°C) ± s.e. Control = not transported; RT (transported animals that remained on the transporter at the French lairage for 12 h) and ULT animals transported (transported animals that were unloaded at the French lairage for a 12 h rest period) at a stocking density of 0.93 m² per animal;^a,bWithin a row, means not having a common superscript differ significantly (P < 0.05);^x,ywithin a column at each sampling time point (day (d)), treatment means differ by P < 0.05. Data were analysed using SAS/STAT (9.1 (SAS Inst. Inc., Cary, NC, USA). The differences between means were tested using the Tukey-Kramer test for multiple comparisons.

ISSN: 1746-6148