887
Effects of different cooling interventions on stationary livestock trailers at a commercial packing plant

Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Exhibit Hall AB (Kansas City Convention Center)
Matt Heiller , Iowa State Univeristy, Ames, IA
Lily Edwards-Callaway , JBS, Greely, CO
Ryan Bailey , JBS, Marshalltown, IA
Nick Pudenz , Elanco, Greenfield, IN
Mark Klassen , Elanco, Greenfield, IN
Matthew J. Ritter , Elanco Animal Health, Bondurant, IA
Austin Dezeeuw , Elanco, Greenfield, IN
Phillip J Rincker , Elanco Animal Health, Dahinda, IL
Abstract Text:

The objective was to determine effects of different cooling interventions on trailer temperature (T), relative humidity (RH), and transport losses over 20 minutes prior to unloading.  Three treatments included: 1. Control (no water or fans), 2. Fan (20 min in front of a bank of fans), and 3. Shower+Fan (5 minutes of showering using the internal trailer system followed by 20 min in front of a bank of fans).  Data was collected using HOBO data loggers placed inside the trailer upon arrival at the packing plant on 150 trailers in blocks where all 3 treatments were represented with 60 min of each other.  Data was summarized at time points 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20 min and was analyzed with proc mixed in SAS using block as a random effect.  Results on trailer T (Table 1) indicate that the Control treatment increased numerically over time, the Fan treatment prevented a rise in T, and the Fan+Shower treatment was the coolest (P<0.05) at all time points.  RH inside the trailers was similar (P>0.05) in the Control and Fan treatment, but higher (P<0.05) in the Shower+Fan treatment at all time points (Table 2).  No differences were determined on the incidence of dead on arrivals (P=0.87) or fatigued animals (P=.077).  Further investigation of the data revealed an interaction (P=0.02) between treatment and environmental temperature where the temperature differences between treatments become greater at higher environmental temperatures.

 

Table 1. LSMeans of the Difference Between Trailer  and Environmental1 Temperatures (⁰C) During the 20 Min Prior to Unloading by Treatment

Time Interval

Control

 

Fan

 

Fan+Shower

 

SEM

P-value

0

0.30

a

0.82

a

-0.78

b

0.28

 <.0001

5

1.04

a

0.65

a

-0.86

b

0.23

 <.0001

10

1.52

a

0.43

b

-0.61

c

0.20

 <.0001

15

1.77

a

0.38

b

-0.43

c

0.20

 <.0001

20

2.11

a

0.52

b

-0.25

c

0.21

 <.0001

1Average environmental  placment temperature was 27.53⁰C

abcmeans within a row lacking common superscripts are different (P<0.05)

 

Table 2. LSMeans of Relative Humidity (%) by Treatment 

Time Interval

Control

 

Fan

 

Fan+Shower

 

SEM

P-value

0

56.51

a

56.27

a

69.52

b

2.43

 <.0001

5

59.15

a

56.46

a

64.76

b

2.58

 <.0001

10

57.93

a

57.32

a

63.23

b

2.59

0.0006

15

57.63

a

57.50

a

62.07

b

2.65

0.0044

20

57.58

a

57.43

a

60.60

b

2.67

0.0319

abcmeans within a row lacking common superscripts are different (P<0.05)

Keywords: Swine, Trailer, Cooling, Fans