Review of the potential impacts of freight rail corridors on livestock welfare and production

Tellisa R. Kearton; Amelia Almeida; Frances C. Cowley; L. Amy Tait

doi:10.1071/AN23039

REVIEW (Open Access)

Previous Next Contents Vol 64(1)

Review of the potential impacts of freight rail corridors on livestock welfare and production

Tellisa R. Kearton

^A , Amelia Almeida

^A , Frances C. Cowley

^A and L. Amy Tait

^A ^*

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: Amy.Tait@une.edu.au

Handling Editor: Dana Campbell

Animal Production Science 64, AN23039 https://doi.org/10.1071/AN23039

Submitted: 24 January 2023 Accepted: 7 November 2023 Published: 27 November 2023

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

The proximity of rail corridors to livestock production enterprises poses potential risks to welfare and production. The association between these factors and production have been extensively investigated. This review aims to assess the potential impact on the basis of existing data in a livestock production context. Due to expansion of freight rail networks through agricultural land, there is a need to investigate potential impacts of rail (including train and track) noise, vibration and visual disturbance on the physiology and behaviour of the livestock and subsequent production traits. Additionally, the factors influencing the impact on animals were characterised broadly as noise, vibration, and visual and spatial disturbance. This information was used to develop conceptual frameworks around the contribution of rail impact on allostatic load, animal welfare and production. Placing rail noise in the context of other, known, noise impacts showed that proximity to the rail line will determine the impact of noise on the behaviour and physiology of the animal. Thresholds for noise levels should be determined on the basis of known noise thresholds, taking into account the impact of noise on allostatic load. Further research is recommended to investigate the behavioural, physiological and production impacts on livestock from proximity to rail corridors. Current literature suggests that the allostatic load will vary depending on the proximity of the animal to the source of stimulus, the type, size or level of stimuli, habituation and the individual animal variation in response to the stimuli.

Keywords: allostatic load, animal welfare, cattle, livestock, noise, rail, sheep, stress.

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