Livestock Transportation Conference Report

08 Apr ... This report summarizes the ten presentations from the full-day program of the 2008 Livestock Transportation Conference held on February 13/08, in Kansas City, MO. It was hosted by the American Meat Institute Foundation (AMIF) and the Animal Transportation Association (AATA).

The conference provided the opportunity for industry to discuss the increasing focus on animal care during transportation. Speakers addressed key issues essential to strengthen animal care and handling, including driver fatigue, loading density, trailer ventilation and design, emergency programs, as well as driver and handler training.

This event brought together people and ideas from science, policy and industry to improve animal care and handling procedures during transportation. Livestock carriers, drivers, plant personnel, producers and other supply-chain stakeholders learned about the latest research in a variety of topics, industry programs that have been implemented or are under development, as well as interesting perspectives based on the experiences of the European Union.

It was prepared for AFAC by Betsy Sharples. Betsy is an independent consultant who has a lifetime affiliation with the trucking Industry. She manages the Livestock Transporters' Division of the Ontario Trucking Association (OTA).

In this capacity, Betsy represents livestock transporters on several provincial and national committees including the Ontario Humane Transport Working Group, the Ontario Farm Animal Council, the Canadian Zoning Committee and several of its sub-committees, the National Farm Animal Care Council and the Dairy Cattle Code of Practice Development Committee. She also attended the CLT Train-the-Trainer course in Lethbridge, Alberta in January, 2008.