The transport of live poultry to slaughter is a high-risk welfare event. Birds experience temperature stress, injury from handling, and physiological challenge from feed and water withdrawal.
Poultry transport combines multiple simultaneous welfare insults: catching and crating stress, vibration, temperature fluctuations, crowding, and feed/water deprivation. Injury rates during mechanical and manual catching are substantial. Journey duration, weather conditions, and slaughter plant queue times compound the challenge. Controlled atmosphere pre-stunning and on-farm processing reduce transport welfare burden significantly.