Summary
Mechanisms to maintain the physiological and behavioural
stability of animals during long distance transport are explored
according to the epidemiological concept of the risk factor. The
purpose is to consider quality assurance and risk management as
two practical means of protecting animal health and welfare during
long distance transport. The hierarchy of welfare, health and disease
is treated as an indivisible whole to ensure that surveillance for
welfare will encompass surveillance for infectious disease and that
ethical consideration applies to the totality. Disease can have
devastating effects on the well-being of both animals and people.
Risk factors and epidemiological methods are explained and promoted
for use in managing the health and welfare of animals transported
over long distances. A 'one medicine' approach is emphasised and
the depiction of stress as the cost of adaptation to stressors or
the allostatic load is introduced to illuminate the challenges confronting
transported animals. Aspects of heat stress in cattle are explored
to illustrate how various sources of information, including inference
from general biological knowledge, can assist in characterising
risk factors that derive from the constitution of animals themselves.
Keywords
Animal,
Behaviour, Epidemiology, Ethics, Long distance, Physiology, Risk,
Transport, Welfare.
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