In Fennoscandia, semi-domesticated reindeer are grazing most of the year freely on natural pastures. Traditionally, reindeer were slaughtered on the field during round-ups, and no transportation to slaughter houses was needed. Field slaughter facilities were erected ad hoc until the 1980s, at which time slaughtering moved to more developed and modern export abattoirs. Nowadays, most of the reindeer in Finland are slaughtered in officially approved abattoirs. The development of a network of regional abattoirs created the need for intensive transportation of live reindeer and led to the evolution of reindeer transportation [1].
Most of the transportation of live reindeer by motor vehicles takes place for slaughter in autumn and early winter [1]. The vehicles include vans and trailers, and for longer distances, special reindeer transport trucks. In addition to transporting to slaughter, vehicle transportation is occasionally used when reindeer are moved between pastures, or to supplementary feeding sites or corrals for winter months. Motor vehicles, helicopters, snow mobiles and quad bikes (ATVs) are used as aids when herding and gathering reindeer for summer or autumn (slaughter) round-ups.
In Finland, all animal transportation is regulated by the Finnish Animal Transport Act (1429/2006) and the Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 on the protection of animals during transport and related operations. There is no specific act for reindeer and thus these regulations are also valid for the transportation of reindeer.
Any external stimulus that challenges homeostasis can be viewed as a stressor to animals [2]. Emotional stimuli are the most common and important stressors in animals with a highly developed nervous system [3–6]. Animals react differently when they are captured, restrained, or immobilized. Even animals that seem to adapt to the situation may suffer from stress and be vulnerable to related damaging changes [7, 8]. Transportation is known to cause substantial stress in domesticated animals [9, 10] and it likely provokes an even more severe stress response in semi-domesticated animals.
The transportation and its impact on the welfare of semi-domesticated reindeer has been an issue of concern in Fennoscandia. The transportation to slaughter includes pre-slaughter handling of the animals; rounding up, herding, holding in enclosures, manual handling, loading, road transport, and unloading. After the transport of reindeer, traumas are commonly found [11–13]. Trauma may be caused by a physical impact by antlers, hooves, metal or wooden projections, or animals falling and being trampled on by others. Such trauma can take place any time during handling, transport, holding, or stunning. Bruises can vary in size, and be superficial or severe and may be seen in different parts of the carcass or even over the entire carcass.
Reindeer, like wild animals, are susceptible to stress caused by human presence, handling, capturing, and transportation. Manual handling and restraint have been found to be one of the major stress factors for reindeer [12–15]. There are indications of a cumulative effect of repeated stress events. In herded reindeer, stress associated lesions, such as abomasal haemorrhage, as well as myocardial and muscular degeneration have been described [11, 13–15]. Physical trauma also cause stress, but as they are often the result of aggression by other animals in the crate, they may also be considered a result of stress behaviour [12].
The detrimental effects of pre-slaughter handling on blood chemistry (aspartate transaminase (ASAT), urea, cortisol) and muscle glycogen stores can cause increased pH values resulting in lower meat quality; these effects have been demonstrated in several Fennoscandian studies [12–22]. Management and handling stress are also reflected by an increase in numbers of both immature and mature neutrophils and a decrease in lymphocyte count, which is correlated to the degree of stress to which the animals have been exposed. Prolonged exposure to stress results in a decrease in the number of eosinophils in peripheral blood [12].
Rehbinder et al. [12], Rehbinder [13] and Wiklund et al. and [14, 20] demonstrated that the use of a lasso to capture reindeer for slaughter was the most stressful handling procedure among those studied. In these studies, lorry transport, helicopter herding, and fixation of animals by hand without the use of a lasso resulted in lower stress responses as measured by meat pH values, blood metabolites used as stress markers i.e. ASAT, urea and cortisol, and abomasal lesions, compared to the lasso capture procedure. The calves have been reported to have higher muscle pH [19] and plasma urea [12, 13] values after herding and handling stress than adults. The authors concluded that calves are more susceptible to stress than adult animals due to more vigorous physical exertion depleting their energy stores more rapidly. Exhausted animals were in general found to have extremely high meat pH values, with 31.1% of the carcasses being classified as intermediate Dark, Firm and Dry meat (DFD) (5.8 < pH < 6.2) and 31.2% as DFD (pH > 6.2) [19].
Natural long-duration stress, such as harsh weather and snow conditions especially in winter time, can also cause poorer meat quality; glycogen stores are used before slaughter and the pH-value remains high [14, 23]. In addition, the animals’ physical condition and nutritional status have a considerable effect on their ability to tolerate various stress factors, such as lorry transport and holding [20].
Hyvärinen et al. [16] found elevated serum urea values associated with reindeer gatherings. Furthermore, the levels were correlated with the distance of the drive and time spent in the corral. The study by Wiklund et al. [15] confirmed the finding that a “stress-flavour” could develop in reindeer meat after intensive pre-slaughter handling of the animals. The animals captured by use of lasso or herded by helicopter for prolonged three days had the highest scores of an unpleasant, strong, even acrid smell, which was described by a trained expert panel as a pungent odour, sickeningly sweet odour, sharp flavour, and sickeningly sweet flavour [15]. It is common knowledge among reindeer herders that animals that have been exposed to stressful pre-slaughter handling give meat with an unfavourable odour [15] which is sometimes referred to as “urine smell” [1, 13]. Several studies have tried to correlate the concentrations of substances such as putrescine, spermidine, spermine, creatine, creatinine, and dimethylamine in reindeer meat and plasma with the presence of ‘stress-flavour’ in the meat, but the issue is still unresolved, as reviewed by Wiklund [15]. According to Rehbinder [13], depletion of muscular glycogen stores, increased catabolism of muscular protein, muscular degeneration, and increased blood-urea levels cannot be excluded as a cause of an altered and bad taste of the meat.
In Sweden, lorry transport did not affect the ultimate pH of the muscles of bulls and calves and the incidence of high pH and intermediate DFD in reindeer hinds was greater only after transport of more than 500 km [19]. In Finland, Nieminen et al. studied the impact of transportation of reindeer in 1993 [24] and in 2000 [25]. In these studies, the transportation distances varied from 30 to 400 km and transportation times from 1 to 5.5 h. The reindeer were reported to be peaceful and in good shape after transportation and only minor bruises were detected.
Aspiration of rumen content during stunning is a common finding during slaughter in production ruminants, leading to the condemnation of lungs at meat inspection [26]. There is, however, apparently, no published data of the causes or incidence of this phenomenon. Aspiration of rumen content is also often seen during reindeer meat inspection. Hanssen et al. [27] reported the transportation of reindeer on lorries to result in more liquid rumen content. In addition, a marked stress response with abomasal erosions or ulcers will affect the digestive tract and its utilization of fodder [13, 15]. It is also common that digestive disorders occur amongst reindeer after supplementary feeding [1, 28]. Reindeer are usually supplementary fed with silage and pellets [1], which often leads to fullness and distension of the rumen. These feeds are medium or high protein rich, which greatly increases their water requirements. For example, adult female reindeer eating pellets have been reported to drink 3.2–3.5 l of water per day, while reindeer fed lichens drank only 0.1 l per day [29]. More liquid rumen content may perhaps predispose to regurgitation and aspiration of rumen content during stunning.
There has been a lot of public debate concerning the long-distance transportation of reindeer by motor vehicles; in particular, with regards to the effect of transportation on the wellbeing of the reindeer. The aim of this study was to partially respond to these concerns by exploring whether the distance of the transportation of live reindeer to abattoirs is associated with higher rates of meat condemnations. We focused on injuries, bruises and fractures, but stress-related abnormal odour and aspiration of rumen content were also surveyed. The outcomes investigated are not only indicators of compromised welfare but also relevant for the brand and reputation of reindeer meat production.
