Transport is one of the most stressful events in a farm pig life, causing fear, injury, heat stress, and mortality that welfare improvements can significantly reduce.
Transport represents a concentration of welfare insults: mixing unfamiliar animals triggers social aggression, loading and unloading involves fear responses and physical effort, vehicle motion causes motion sickness and balance challenges, and temperature regulation becomes difficult in enclosed vehicles. For pigs specifically, the combination of social stress from mixing and thermal stress from poor ventilation can be lethal. Research into transport welfare has identified clear interventions that reduce harm: training drivers in low-stress handling, using vehicle designs that minimise crowding and maintain ventilation, limiting journey times, and ensuring well-managed lairage at destination. The challenge is implementation at scale across a global supply chain where economic pressure consistently works against welfare investment.