Live Poultry Transport: Heat, Crowding, and Mortality Before the Slaughterhouse

The transport of live chickens and turkeys to slaughter involves significant suffering from crowding, heat stress, handling injuries, and journey durations that push birds beyond physiological limits.

Key Facts

An estimated 1–4% of broiler chickens die during transport to slaughter in the EU — representing tens of millions of birds annually.
Chickens are typically transported in plastic crates stacked on open trucks; summer temperatures inside crates can exceed 35°C even in mild climates.
Loading — catching birds by hand and placing them in crates — causes bruising, dislocated hips, and broken wings in 1–2% of birds per journey.
EU regulations permit journeys of up to 12 hours for poultry without water, feed, or rest; longer journeys require approved vehicles with environmental controls.
Thermal stress during transport elevates cortisol, suppresses immunity, and can cause cardiac failure in fast-growing broiler breeds already compromised by their genetics.
Pre-slaughter lairage (holding) adds additional stress time; many birds arrive exhausted, dehydrated, and injured before stunning even begins.

Welfare Considerations

Poultry transport is a welfare bottleneck that affects billions of birds annually but receives little regulatory attention compared to the slaughter process itself. The journey to slaughter begins with violent catching — often at night, by hand, in darkened sheds — which causes acute fear and physical injury. Birds then spend hours in crowded, unventilated crates exposed to temperature extremes. Fast-growing broiler breeds are particularly vulnerable: their compromised cardiovascular systems are poorly suited to thermal stress. Deaths during transport are treated as production losses rather than welfare failures. The welfare case for reducing journey times, improving vehicle standards, and developing on-farm slaughter as an alternative is strong.

What You Can Do

Advocate for maximum 4-hour transport time limits for poultry, as recommended by welfare scientists but not yet legally required in most jurisdictions.
Support on-farm mobile slaughter unit development as a way to eliminate transport welfare costs for poultry.
Choose chicken from producers certified under higher welfare schemes that include transport standards.
Contact food companies and retailers to ask about their poultry transport welfare requirements from suppliers.
Reduce or eliminate broiler chicken consumption, or shift to welfare-certified products, as the most direct impact option.