Safeguarding animal welfare during transport: analysis of the infringements found from 2009 to 2013 during inspections in Italy

Council Regulation (EC) N 1/2005 regulates animal transport in Europe. In compliance with art. 27 of the (EC) N 1/2005, Member States have to send every year to the European Commission a report containing the principle inspections and the infringements found by the competent authorities. The infringements reported in the Italian reports from 2009 to 2013 were analysed and possible associations between the type of infringement and year were identified. The infringements were divided into three main categories: animals being transported (A), vehicle (V), and accompanying documents (D); A was further categorized into overcrowding, mixing, injured, dead, and unfit. A total of 986 infringements were analysed, namely 162 in 2009, 154 in 2010, 292 in 2011, 201 in 2012 and 177 in 2013. The species transported were mainly cattle (326/986), pigs (172/986) and horses (142/986), and rarely sheep (74/986) or dogs (16/986). More infringements were often found during an inspection (mean: 1.6, max: 9). The frequencies of infringements related to A, V and D were 14%, 13%, and 48%, respectively; 5.5% of cases reported an infringement in all three categories. Overcrowding (16.8%) and the presence of injured animals (6%) were the most common infringements related to A. Year resulted associated with the category of infringements with a progressive reduction of D infringements after the 2012. Similarly, overcrowding was negatively associated with year, with a reduction of the likelihood in 2011 and 2012 in comparison with 2009. Overall, it seems that there was an improvement in accompanying documentations and space allowance.