Unpredictable floor motions during transport disturbs animals’ balance, requiring stepping to move the centre of gravity in the direction of body movement. When repeated regularly, this may be stressful, requiring involvement of the right brain hemisphere, hence we investigated the existence of behavioral laterality in sheep during prolonged floor motions. Six sheep were restrained in pairs on a programmable rocking platform, in which they were unable to turn around. They were exposed to three continuous rocking motion treatments (roll, pitch or both) in a regular or irregular pattern for 1 h periods in a changeover design. Right forelimb and left hindlimb diagonal stepping was more frequent in response to the motion treatment of irregular roll and pitch, which previous research has suggested to be the most stressful from heart rate measurements. An overall strategy to maintain balance appeared to be the use of the right hindlimb as a stabilizer, which was repositioned least often of all limbs until towards the end of the hour of experimental treatment. Of each tested pair, sheep restrained on the left side of the rocking floor stepped significantly often than its partner restrained on the right side, and we postulate the existence of visuomotor lateralization as left restrained sheep were unable to view their partner within the field of view of their left eye. We also investigated which side sheep lie down on, which if left lateralized could explain our observed bipedal diagonal control of sheep balance under stress. From the observation of 412 web-based images of sheep, there was an overall left-sided laterality to their lying, as has been observed in cattle. We conclude that stepping activity in sheep in response to a motion stressor is lateralized, providing evidence that floor motion experienced in transport may induce stress responses.

Patagonia in the far south of Chile is used as a breeding ground for cattle, which are then transported north for their final stages of growth before being killed for meat. The objective of this study was to compare mortality in beef cattle exposed to two different types of long-distance transport: by ship, using a roll-on/roll-off system, or by truck. Data from a major transport company were used to compare the mortality risks for calves and older cattle when conveyed by sea or road from southern to central Chile journeys of four and two days, respectively. Mortality was higher for both calves and older cattle traveling by sea than those traveling by road, but when the data was corrected for journey duration, mortality/day was greater for those traveling by road. Mortality was increased at high stocking densities and, for older cattle, winter was a high-risk season, compared with summer. Mortality was also higher for calves than older cattle. The results identify the greatest risks of mortality over the two routes to facilitate reform of the transport processes so that cattle welfare is improved.