Quality management for the road transportation of livestock.

Transport can be a significant stress factor for livestock and can result in poor animal welfare and economic losses. Quality management measures are actively employed in fields different from animal welfare and could be applied to improve the welfare of animals and reduce the consequent losses during road transportation and related activities Training and education of staff comprise one possible measure, Web-geographic information system technology used to monitor the true state of transported animals is another innovation that promises major progress. With this technology, behavioural and environmental parameters can be monitored and registered in real time. The resulting data could be useful to control the transport environment and the conduct of staff. Although some parameters cannot be represented through numerical relationships, behavioural and environmental measurements can be used in a risk analysis system to minimise risks of poor welfare during animal transportation. The European Union Joint Research Centre and the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise 'G. Caporale' in Teramo are working on an experimental project to prove the feasibility of a navigation system for long road journeys as referred to in Regulation (EC) 1/2005 of the European Union. Such a system enables the collection of data on transported animals and the verification that welfare requirements are being met at any given moment during the journey.