Fitness to Transport

AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich is joined by Dr. Lilly Edwards Callaway, from Colorado State University, and Dr. Michell Calvo Lorenzo, from Elanco Animal Health, to discuss the topic “fitness to transport.” This podcast is sponsored by Elanco Animal Health, makers of ScourBos. Find out more about ScourBos and how you can incorporate this vaccine into your herd health program at this link.  

Fitness to transport is the ability for an animal to get on a truck and safely make it to its end destination. This is important to the entire supply chain and the decision to transport an animal and assess if it is fit needs to be happening by many different decision makers. It is critical that all decision makers understand when an animal is fit or is not fit for transport. It is also important for those decision makers to be empowered to make that determination based on the best interests of the animal and how it will impact their life. Veterinarians can play an important role in this process to train employees and farm managers to identify the conditions that make an animal unfit for transport. Our guests also review data about the conditions observed in cull cows at livestock markets and slaughter plants that demonstrate our industry has room to improve in this area and not ship animals that are unfit for transport. Decision makers must consider the journey the animal makes and consider that the welfare of the animal is the number one consideration. These decisions have an economic impact on the client, but consideration for the welfare of the animal is the most important factor. We discuss that veterinarians can talk to clients about these processes to improve the welfare and care of the animals in our care, decrease risk to the client, and improve employee morale. Talk to your clients today about identifying animals that are fit for transport and working with your teams to appropriately make decisions for transporting cattle. 

Links:

 AABP Transportation of Cattle Guidelines

 NMPF FARM Program Fitness to Transport Poster

Fitness to Transport Video

 An intercontinental survey of commercial abattoirs: Preliminary data on the prevalence of advanced preslaughter health and welfare conditions in mature cows

Fitness for transport of cull dairy cows at livestock markets

Management of cull dairy cows: Culling decisions, duration of transport, and effect on cow condition

 Culling Decisions and Dairy Cattle Welfare During Transport to Slaughter in the United States

 National Beef Quality Audit–2016: Transportation, mobility, live cattle, and carcass assessments of targeted producer-related characteristics that affect value of market cows and bulls, their carcasses, and associated by-products