The handling and short-haul road transportation of spent buffaloes in relation to bruising and animal welfare

The handling of 100 spent buffaloes during transportation by truck from an animal market to a slaughterhouse was observed so as to assess the influence of sex, body condition (weak, normal or heavy), body size based on the height at the hump (small, medium or large) and handling method (dragging, dragging + hitting or lifting + hitting) on the manpower requirement and the time spent in both loading and unloading. A buffalo could be loaded onto a truck with the help of 2.8 labourers in 66 s, whereas the average manpower and time needed for unloading a buffalo were 1.9 labourers and 26 s, respectively. Sex and size had no significant effect on the manpower requirement or the time spent in loading and unloading. Animals in normal body condition needed more (p <0.05) manpower (3.2 labourers) for loading compared to weak animals (2.5 labourers) or heavy animals (2.6 labourers). The manpower and time required for loading and unloading were least (p <0.05) when a stick was used while dragging. Excessive steepness of the loading ramp caused some of the animals to fall down during loading, whereas a slippery truck floor, due to increased eliminative activities by nervous animals, might result in buffaloes going down during unloading. The mean number of bruises was 2.44 per head. As muscle tissues were involved in about 90% of the bruises, considerable economic losses occurred through bruising, which necessitated removal of damaged tissues post mortem. Most of the bruises were found on the hind limbs (43.4%), followed by the abdomen and udder region (21.3%), shoulder, neck and back (16.0%) and perianal region (11.1%).