Pork producers, swine transporters, and regulatory authorities will reap the benefits of research to assess the effects on pigs of long-distance versus short-distance transport. 
The Prairie Swine Center and the Universities of Saskatchewan and Guelph with support from Swine Innovation Porc and the Agriculture Development Fund Saskatchewan, said scientists are tracking the effects of stress during transport on weaned pigs. 
Stress happens but is it resulting in physiological changes that could result in distress for the animal or could it compromise the health of the animal. This could have effects according to the researchers for not only the welfare but the ability to have efficient production systems and maybe an increase in antibiotic use for example. 
Dr. Yolande Seddon of the Western College of Veterinary Medicine knows transport stresses the piglets, but the key is to guard against the ride causing further distress for the piglets.  
Pigs are very resilient and many walk off the truck and look good. 
“We regularly transport animals, but then understanding how our practices might be influencing gives us a greater appreciation,” said Dr. Seddon. “In turn, we can adjust animal care to ensure that the
pigs receive the support to overcome a stressor such as transport for example.” 
She believes this information can go toward supporting recommendations for best practices about how to transport pigs and possibly used to support legislative regulations. 
There should be some recommendations in some practical applications for what might work if pigs need any supplementary support during transport.  
Dr. Seddon said by understanding how the practices influence the pigs it will be easier to determine when to intervene. 
“When we have more data, we can look at intervention strategies to see how we can reduce the amount of physical stress to the pigs.” 
She said they are collecting more data from trips that are going up to 36 hours to assess short versus long trips and to increase the sample size.  
If the research can identify more factors influencing the stress response outside of normal reference ranges, creating a physiological change in the animal that needs reversing that’s where they’d look at intervention strategies to see how to reduce the pigs’ amount of physical stress. •
— By Harry Siemens