ABSTRACT

Animal transport is debated due to welfare concerns. In this paper, data from 2014-2018 on animal transportation between EU member states (MS) (for slaughter, breeding, and production), are evaluated to create basis for discussion of TRACES database as tool to inform about pig and cattle welfare. Approximately 33million pigs were transported between EU MS peryear with considerable changes within categories.The majority of pigs was transported for production (57 to 73%), transportation for slaughter constituted 29% (34 to 25%), and the remaining (2–9%) were transported for breeding. Approximately 4 million cattle was transported peryear. The majority was transported for production (62 to 71%), 15–16% for slaughter, and the rest for breeding (23 to 14%). For each species and purpose category, 10 MS transporting the highest numbers are presented, suggesting acomplex underlying pattern with potential animal welfare consequences. Based on adiscussion of selected examples, however, we suggest that usefulness of TRACES as basis of an informed animal welfare evaluation would improve by including data from relevant animal types in addition to purpose categories.

摘要

动物运输因福利问题而备受争议。在本文中，对 2014-2018 年欧盟成员国 (MS) 之间动物运输（用于屠宰、繁殖和生产）的数据进行了评估，为讨论 TRACES 数据库作为了解猪和牛福利的工具奠定了基础。每年约有 3300 万头猪在欧盟成员国之间运输，类别变化很大。大部分生猪运输用于生产（57% 至 73%），屠宰运输占 29%（34% 至 25%），其余（2-9 %) 被运输用于繁殖。每年运输大约 400 万头牛。大多数被运输用于生产（62% 至 71%），15-16% 用于屠宰，其余用于繁殖（23% 至 14%）。对于每个物种和用途类别，提供了 10 个传输数量最多的 MS，表明具有潜在动物福利后果的复杂潜在模式。然而，根据对选定示例的讨论，我们建议通过在目的类别之外包括来自相关动物类型的数据，可以提高 TRACES 作为知情动物福利评估基础的有用性。