Transportation of animals between research facilities is a significant welfare stressor that can be reduced through improved practices and alternatives.
Animal transport between research facilities causes welfare impacts that are often underestimated and whose duration exceeds the transport event itself. The combination of novel environment, motion, noise, and social disruption activates stress responses lasting days. This stress affects both animal welfare and experimental validity, creating an alignment between welfare and scientific quality. Practical improvements include pre-transport health screening, appropriate container design, temperature control, social grouping where possible, and adequate acclimatization periods on arrival. Replacing live animal transport with biological material sharing where scientifically valid eliminates welfare impacts entirely.