Table 3.

U.S. slaughter plant benchmark statistics for transport losses in market weight pigs

		Plant benchmark category†
Variable	Mean*	Top 25%	Middle 50%	Bottom 25%
Total dead‡	0.26%	0.15%	0.25%	0.38%
Non-ambulatory pigs||	0.63%	0.26%	0.53%	1.11%

^*Based on 310,002,578 pigs at 20 U.S. processing facilities over 212 consecutive weeks of data collection.

^†Percentages of total dead pigs and non-ambulatory pigs were calculated for the 4-yr period by plant. Plants were ranked in ascending order for each variable. The 5 plants with the lowest values represent the top 25%, the 5 plants with the highest values represent the bottom 25%, and the remaining 10 plants represent the middle 50%. Means were then calculated for each plant benchmark category (top 25%, middle 50%, and bottom 25%).

^‡Total dead = DOA + EOA + DIP.

^||Non-ambulatory pigs were defined as a pig unable to move or keep up with the rest of the group from unloading to stunning.