Calves transportation conditions upon arrival at major livestock auction markets in Québec, Canada

: The objective of this cross-sectional observational study was to describe the transport conditions of calves at the time of their arrival at the 2 major livestock auction markets in the province of Québec, Canada, and to identify characteristics that affect bedding cleanliness. A particular emphasis was placed on the transport environment of young dairy calves commonly being marketed for-the veal production. During 4 d per auction site (n = 2 sites), 2 d in summer and 2 d in winter, the descriptive characteristics including type of transports, number of calves per transport, separation from other transported animals as well as presence of ventilation sources (e


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Abstract: The objective of this cross-sectional observational study was to describe the transport conditions of calves at the time of their arrival at the 2 major livestock auction markets in the province of Québec, Canada, and to identify characteristics that affect bedding cleanliness.A particular emphasis was placed on the transport environment of young dairy calves commonly being marketed for-the veal production.During 4 d per auction site (n = 2 sites), 2 d in summer and 2 d in winter, the descriptive characteristics including type of transports, number of calves per transport, separation from other transported animals as well as presence of ventilation sources (e.g., open holes allowing natural ventilation), bedding, and bedding cleanliness were determined.A total of 507 different transports were included, representing a total of 4,054 calves sold during these 8 d.The vast majority of calves (95% (n = 3,845)) were transported by commercially designed trailers (long commercial trailers (n = 358 or 70.6% of all transport types), short commercial trailers (n = 62 or 12.2%) or multideck trailers (n = 15 or 3%).A minority of calves (5%) were either transported by home-made trailers (n = 30, 5.9% of transport) or other types of transports (n = 42 or 8.3%).The presence of any ventilation source in the calves' transportation area was observed in 86% of transports and increased in summer vs. winter (OR: 2.75 (95% CI: 1.58-4.79)).Bedding was present in 96% of evaluated transports.The majority (68%) of calves' transport flooring area was considered clean, with less than 33% of the calves' area soiled with manure.The dirtiness of calves' transport flooring area was lower in winter than in summer (OR = 0.63 (0.43-0.92)) and in site B than in site A (OR = 0.57 (0.38-0.94)).This study gives interesting insight on surplus calves transportation and unloading conditions in commercial auction markets.
I n the Province of Québec, Canada, male calves and dairy cross- bred calves born on dairy farms represent the main source of calves purchased for the production of veal and other types of beef.Calves are generally transported to be sold at the auction market at 1 to 2 weeks of age corresponding to a typical body weight of 45 to 54kg in most calves (Buczinski et al., 2021).Transportation may involve long distance and could be associated with negative health impact such as dehydration (Goetz et al., 2022), diarrhea (Goetz et al., 2023), or an increased risk of mortality (Boulton et al., 2020).Transporting newborn calves can be more challenging than older cattle, as calves have an immature immune system and a lack of exposure to new environments (Roadknight et al., 2021).Transport stress can predispose calves to a high risk of morbidity and mortality.This may result in reduced mean daily gain during the growing phase (Roadknight et al., 2021).On a yearly basis, 100,000 to 130,000 calves are transiting through Québec auction markets, with almost 70% of calves in the 2 largest auction sites (Buczinski et al., 2021).However, there is little information available on the characteristics of commercial transportation of these calves.It is, therefore, important to collect information of the transport conditions of young dairy calves to better understand this important component of surplus calves' journey in Québec.Most research on this topic arises from experimental transport condition, which may differ from "real" conditions of transport (Roadknight et al., 2021).Thus, the overall objective of this project was to describe the transport conditions for Québec surplus calves in the livestock industry upon their arrival at 2 large auction markets, to identify characteristics that affect bedding cleanliness, and to determine seasonal variability.
The present study was part of a larger project on welfare and health on surplus dairy calves during marketing process.This study was completed in accordance with the guidelines of the Institutional Animal Care Committee (CÉUA) of the Université de Montréal (CÉUA protocol: #19-Rech-2015).A descriptive study of transport conditions during marketing of young dairy calves was conducted on the 2 largest livestock auction markets in Québec, between June 2019 and February 2020.Each auction market was visited 4 times, twice in summer 2019 and twice in winter 2020.We did not establish a predefined sample size for this descriptive study due to the absence of prior knowledge regarding young calves' transport types in Québec auctions markets.
A single observer was responsible for evaluating the transport conditions and unloading of animals arriving at the auction markets for the entire study.Visual evaluation of trailers and transport conditions was performed in the large animal landing areas of the auction markets.The trailer type was categorized into 5 distinct groups: short commercial trailer (i.e., trailer lower flooring length is less than the length of 2 adult cattle placed one in front of the other), long commercial trailer (i.e., trailer lower flooring length is equal or longer than the length of 2 adult cattle in a single file), multi-deck trailers, home-made trailers (trailer not initially designed for transporting animals), as well as a variation of several types of box or pick-up grouped as "others."This information is presented in Tables 1 and 2, including details about the quantity and types of animals (calf or cow) being unloaded.All transports unloading at least one head of cattle (calf, heifer, cow, or bull) were evaluated (n = 650) in terms of type of trailer.For trailers carrying at least one calf (n = 507), additional information was collected.The information collected accounted for the fact that the auction market's unloading process could not be impaired.Therefore, data collection had to be performed quickly (<1 min after the animals were unloaded), before the departure of the trailer and clinical examination of the calves (Ramos et al., 2023).The specific location of the calves in the trailer was noted.Depending on the type of trailer, up to 5 different compartments allowing separation of the animals were distinguished: nose, deck, belly, back, and doghouse (González et al., 2012a).Ventilation was noted as a dichotomous variable focusing on the presence of any source of natural ventilation.The area of the trailer where calves were transported being either ventilated or not at the time of observation with presence of ridges, opening or open windows.No specific measurement of opening area was noted.Similarly, each transport carrying calves was classified as having or not having bedding in the area where calves were located.Dirtiness of the floor where the calves had been transported was scored on a scale of 1 to 3 (1 when <33% of the surface was visibly wet or soiled with manure, 2 when ≥33% but <66% of the surface was visibly wet or soiled, 3 when ≥66% of the surface was visibly wet or soiled).We chose this convenient trichotomous scale in the absence of a current consensus on transport area cleanliness assessment in livestock.Finally, it was also noted if a physical barrier was used to separate calves from other types of animals.The ambient temperature was obtained from the closest weather station from the auction site.
While impossible to determine the exact time spent in the transportation in this study, we previously estimated in Ramos et al. (2023) that the median distance traveled by these calves was 57km (IQR (32.4-106.2km)ranging from 0.9km to 581.2km), using the individual identification number of the calves which is associated with farm geographical coordinates in auction market database.It was not possible to link specific calves' findings with transport conditions and unloading technique due to the rapid unloading flow.
Statistical analyses were performed using R software (R Development Core Team, 2020).Descriptive statistics concerning the number of transported animals (calves and cows in transports including at least 1 calf) were reported as median and interquartile range.Descriptive results to the location of the calves in transport were also indicated.A Cochrane-Mantel-Haenszel test was used to determine whether the season affects the presence of ventilation or bedding (dichotomous outcomes) in the trailer when adjusting for auction site as a potential confounder.Breslow-Day test was performed to determine odds ratio homogeneity in both auction sites.The associations between season, auction site and number of calves and cows transported per transport were tested using non-parametric ANOVA (Kruskall-Wallis test).The association between the ventilation as well as cleanliness with transport type were tested with a chi-squared test with Bonferroni adjusted posthoc comparison when the global test was significant.
For calves' bedding dirtiness (trichotomous variable), a multivariable ordinal logistic regression was performed.All variables of interests (number of calves transported within the trailer, transport type, season and auction sites) were initially entered in a full model and a manual backward selection was performed until all remaining variables were significant at the P < 0.05 thresholds, except auction site which was forced in the model.Collinearity and confounders were checked using variance inflation factor and change or more than 20% of the regression coefficient, respectively.Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05 for all the analyses.Model fit was assessed using the specific Lipsitz test (Lipsitz et al., 2016) for ordinal regression models (P > 0.05 indicates that the model satisfies the proportional odds assumption).
The study took place on June 26 and July 1, 3, and 8 2019 for the summer data collection and on February 10, 12, 22, and 24 2020, for the winter period.The maximal (minimal) temperature recorded in the auction sites were +27.5°C (+17.3°C),+26.5°C (+9.5°C) for summer and +1.0°C (−12.0°C),+1.0°C (−3.5°C) for the winter sampling in Site A. For Site B, +26.1°C (+12.4°C),+28.0°C (+13.8°C) were recorded for the summer sampling and −3.0°C (−14.0°C) and +8.5°C (−28.5°C) for the winter sampling days.In total, the unloading of animals from 650 transports were observed during the study period (366 at auction A and 284 at auction B).We only focused our observations on the 507 transports which included at least one calf.Transports without calves were not included.A total of 280 in auction A (152 in summer and 128 in winter) vs. 227 in auction B (99 in summer and 128 in winter) were included, as detailed in Tables 1 and 2. This represented a total of 4,054 calves (2,053 for site A and 2,001 for Site B).The remaining transports unloading on these days (n = 143, 28%) did not transport any calf.Most transports with calves consisted in long commercial trailers (n = 358, 70.6%), followed by short commercial trailers (n = 62, 12.2%), multi-decks trailers (n = 15, 3%), home-made trailers (n = 30, 5.9%), and other types of transports (n = 42, 8.3%), as represented in Figure 1.Long commercial trailers transported the majority of calves (n = 3,065, 75.6%), followed by multi-deck transports (n = 490, 12.1%), and short commercial trailers (n = 290, 7.2%).Homemade trailers as well as other types of transports, represented a small number of transported calves with 183 (3%) and 86 (2%) calves, respectively.We have represented the distribution of all transports, including the number of calves per transport and the total number of transported calves by auction site in Figure 1 and Tables 1 and 2. A large majority of transports (485 of 507, 95.7%) had isolated calves from other animals (n = 377) or only transported calves (n = 108).Calves were always isolated in short commercial trailers, multi-deck, and other types of transport (e.g., box, pick-up).When calves were not isolated from other types of animals (n = 22, 4.3%), they were in direct contact with small ruminants (n = 12), older calves (n = 4), dairy heifer (n = 3), adult cows (n = 3), or young bulls (n = 2).For calves transported in long, short commercial and, multi-deck trailers, it was possible to determine their location during the transportation.For long commercial trailers, calves were present in the front (n = 293, 81.8%), the nose (trailer space above the truck attachment; n = 15, 4.2%), the middle (n = 8, 2.2%), or simply in the back (n = 46, 12.9%).A total of 4 (1.1%) long commercial trailers had calves in more than one area.For short commercial trailers, calves were present in the front (n = 33, 53.2%), the nose (n = 2, 3.2%), or simply in the back (n = 27, 43.6%).In multi-decks trailers, calves were present in the upper nose (n = 8, 53.3%), lower nose (n = 1, 6.7%), deck (n = 5, 33.3%), back (n = 5, 33.3%) or in the doghouse (n = 5, 33.3%).In 9 (60%) of the multi-deck trailers, calves were positioned in at least 2 locations.
The majority of transports (85.9%) had at least one ventilation source in the specific calves' laying area during transport (433 of 504 recorded data).No difference was observed between transport type and level of cleanliness (P = 0.25).In contrast, transport type was associated with the presence of ventilation (P < 0.001), which was more often absent in home-made (proportion of 8/19) and other types of transports (21/42) than in long trailers (30/355), short trailers (8/66), or multi-deck trailers (0/15).After adjusting for auction site, the odds of the presence of any ventilation area increased in summer compared with winter, with an odds ratio of 2.75 (95% CI: 1.58-4.79;P CMH < 0.001, P Breslow-day test < 0.001).The odds of presence of any ventilation area was increased in summer when compared with winter, after adjusting for auction site (OR: 2.75 (95% CI: 1.58-4.79),P CMH < 0.001, P Breslow-day test < 0.001).The presence of bedding was observed in 486 of 504 transports (96.4%) and was not associated with the season (OR: 0.618 (0.232-1.64),P CMH = 0.47,) nor auction site (P Breslow-day test = 0.21).The proportion of transports with < 33% of wet or dirty flooring surface where calves were kept was 68.8% (342 out of 497 transports where information could be assessed), and 18.1% of transports could be considered dirty (n = 72) with more than 66% of the surface being wet or dirty (see Figure 2).The season and the site were associated with increased odds of dirtiness.The calves' transport flooring area was less dirty in winter than in summer (OR = 0.430 (0.381-0.631),P = 0.018) and in site B than in site A (OR = 0.835 (0.566-923), P = 0.005) in the final multivariable ordinal logistic regression (Supplemental file).The Lipsitz test indicated a good model fit (P = 0.16).
During this study, we noticed that the majority (75.6%) of transported calves were in long commercial trailers, whereas a minority were in other types of trailers.Other animals, generally cows, were transported in the trailers transporting calves, but were most often separated from these other types of animals.Approximately 20% of the assessed transports were considered dirty with more than 2 thirds of the calves laying area being judged as wet or dirty at unloading.The general requirement for transporting animals in Canada requires, among other specifications, to use a specially designed container or vehicle for animal transportation, to provide adequate space, adequate ventilation, and protection in case of extreme weather, as well as providing a non-slip area (Canadian Food Inspection Agency, 2020).We could not assess specific characteristics of bedding (e.g., bedding depth, moisture content) that could be associated with increased risk of slipping, other than apparent cleanliness observed during unloading.The ventilation was also qualitatively assessed (presence or absence) but could not be quantitatively measured.However, we think that the vast majority of transports assessed during this study cope with Canadian regu-lation.The current study shows that a large proportion (85.6%) of transports were specially designed trailers, whereas homemade trailers and other types of transport procedures were uncommonly used but had lower presence of source of ventilation than long, short, and multideck trailers.It is unknown if the calves' welfare during transportation is different in the various types of transports.We hypothesized, even if we cannot prove it, that most of these non-specially designed transports could represent individual farms close to the auction sites who directly transport their calves without a professional livestock transportation service.Future research on calves' transportation should not underestimate the importance of these alternative way to transport calves (homemade trailers and box vs. trailers primarily designed for calf transportation), especially when transport is performed by people with less training and/or experience.
Gathering data from commercial livestock transport of young calves is a challenge as recently reviewed by Roadknight et al. (2021).The process of traveling from a farm to another, including loading the animals to arrive on time in auction market, makes research projects challenging.Determination of calves' transportation characteristics and impact on their health parameters was not possible in this study but deserves further work.In a British Columbia study, surplus calves evaluated before and after transport to an auction market or to one calf grower had greater odds of being depressed when suffering from failure of transfer of passive immunity, but no information was available on the type and characteristics of transports involved (Wilson et al., 2020).In an experimental Dutch study with either 6h or 18h traveling duration, 3-week-old calves transported in conditioned trucks had lower umbilical infection problems during the early feeding period in veal farms than calves transported in open trucks (Marcato et al., 2020).Abnormal physical findings are commonly observed in Canadian young calves transported to auction market (Marquou et al., 2019), or upon arrival at the veal unit (Scott et al., 2019).However, it remains partially unknown what proportion of abnormalities is caused or worsened by different transport characteristics.
The current study is a first step aiming to gather a realistic portrait of the young calves' transportation conditions to auction market.Adequate bedding can improve transportation conditions, as it was associated with lower serum creatine kinase concentration (a marker of muscle injury) observed after transporting Australian bob-calves (Jongman and Butler, 2014).This improvement could be attributed to the decreasing muscle compression during lying or preventing muscle injury associated with accidental falling.Dry and abundant bedding will also help thermoregulation of the young calves, especially during cold periods (Roland et al., 2016).The relationship between bedding dirtiness or dryness and calves' welfare during transport still needs to be explored, but a slippery surface may be associated with higher risk of muscle damage and bruising during transport.Moreover, the presence of a dirty surface may increase the risk of exposure to fecal pathogens or decreased air quality during transportation when the calves are lying and could therefore be a possible risk factor for enteric, respiratory disease, or antimicrobial resistant pathogens after transportation (EFSA, 2022).Young calves generally lie down during the transportation, in contrast to adult cattle, which generally stand (Cockram and Spence, 2012).Therefore, stocking density during transport and bedding thickness are also important factors that could affect the calves' welfare, which were not possible to measure in this study.
Transport duration or distance is another important aspect which can also be associated with the presence of more contaminated bedding.In a New Zealand study by Boulton et al. (2020) focused on case-control analysis of calves dead on arrival or during lairage, each additional 1 h of transport from the farm to the slaughter plant increased the odds of dying (OR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1 .18-1.76).However, it was not possible to associate the mean distance traveled with transport area cleanliness.
This study aimed to describe the basic characteristics of transports involving young calves arriving at 2 large auction markets in both summer and winter.The study was limited to 2 visits per auction per season.While we believe that the results are representative of what is routinely observed in these auctions, based on authors' experience and discussions with various stakeholders, the limited number of observation-day may be a limitation of this study.Moreover, because transport regulation and marketing characteristics depends of local regulation and geographical particularities, extrapolation to other settings should be done with caution.

CONCLUSION
Designing research projects on livestock commercial transport conditions remains an significant challenge to the involvement of numerous actors and the wide variety of trailers, environments, and journeys the animals may be embarking on.This study represents a first step to understand the commercial transport conditions on young calves in Québec, Canada.Most calves were transported in commercial trailers, along with other animals, and were provided with ventilation and bedding during transport.The lack of cleanliness of the trailers' areas were calves were located in the transport may indicate a need for adjustment in bedding and ventilation management during transport.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Distribution of the number of calves per transport by type of trailer and total number of calves transported by specific trailer type in 2 Québec auction markets during 8 different auction days.The panel A is describing the number of calves unloaded per transport by the different trailer types in both auction sites (A and B) whereas panel B is describing the total number of calves unloaded from the different types of trailers in the 2 auctions.

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Proportion of dirtiness categories in areas where calves were transported by auction sites and season (panel A) and when considering the type of trailer (panel B).The data were collected during 2 d in the summer and 2 d in the winter for each auction site.

Table 1 .
Robichaud et al. | Surplus calves transportation conditions upon auction market arrival Descriptive characteristics and comparison of transports arriving with young calves at 2 large Québec auction markets Mantel Haenszel test, 2 Breslow-day test for testing odds ratio homogeneity, 3 Kruskall-Wallis test.

Table 2 .
Ordinal logistic regression determining factors associated with calves transporting area dirtiness