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

Table 5 Treatment effects on metabolic variables pre and post-transport 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
Non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) (μmol/L)
Control	0.69 ± 0.07^ax	0.38 ± 0.05^bx	0.41 ± 0.05^bx	0.45 ± 0.06^bx	0.60 ± 0.06^abx	0.51 ± 0.06^bx	0.59 ± 0.05^abx	0.43 ± 0.05^bx
RT	0.67 ± 0.07^ax	0.73 ± 0.08^aby	0.79 ± 0.09^aby	0.81 ± 0.10^aby	0.71 ± 0.09^abx	0.57 ± 0.08^abx	0.29 ± 0.07^by	0.07 ± 0.01^by
ULT	0.64 ± 0.06^ax	0.62 ± 0.07^aby	0.61 ± 0.05^aby	0.76 ± 0.07^aby	0.66 ± 0.08^abx	0.58 ± 0.07^bx	0.43 ± 0.08^by	0.06 ± 0.01^by
Urea (mmol/L)
Control	5.07 ± 0.42^ax	3.97 ± 0.54^bx	4.46 ± 0.61^abx	4.73 ± 0.71^abx	4.35 ± 0.61^bx	3.27 ± 0.28^bx	3.50 ± 0.32^bx	3.06 ± 0.19^bx
RT	4.42 ± 0.26^ax	6.17 ± 0.65^by	6.35 ± 0.82^by	5.33 ± 0.31^by	5.12 ± 0.47^aby	4.56 ± 0.59^aby	3.87 ± 0.47^aby	4.92 ± 0.39^by
ULT	4.57 ± 0.23^ax	5.19 ± 0.22^by	4.89 ± 0.22^aby	4.56 ± 0.27^abxy	4.62 ± 0.52^abxy	4.37 ± 0.26^abxy	4.64 ± 0.32^abxy	5.12 ± 0.22^abxy
Glucose (mmol/L)
Control	4.88 ± 0.15^ax	4.11 ± 0.08^bx	4.19 ± 0.10^bx	4.01 ± 0.11^bx	4.24 ± 0.10^bx	4.13 ± 0.10^bx	4.08 ± 0.10^bx	4.01 ± 0.08^bx
RT	4.70 ± 0.23^ax	4.53 ± 0.22^abxy	4.43 ± 0.23^abxy	4.43 ± 0.19^abxy	4.13 ± 0.11^bxy	4.26 ± 0.13^bx	3.93 ± 0.23^bx	4.96 ± 0.17^abx
ULT	4.58 ± 0.18^ax	5.02 ± 0.24^aby	4.52 ± 0.13^aby	4.34 ± 0.10^aby	3.92 ± 0.07^by	4.10 ± 0.08^bx	4.05 ± 0.09^bx	4.70 ± 0.13^abx

The values are expressed as mean ± 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.

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