Lairage — the holding of live poultry at the slaughterhouse before slaughter — is a significant welfare event. Managing its duration and conditions directly affects bird welfare in their final hours.
Lairage represents the final welfare challenge in the commercial poultry life cycle. Birds that have already experienced the stress of catching, crating, and transport then face an extended holding period in unfamiliar surroundings with restricted movement, no food or water, and exposure to unfamiliar sounds and smells from the processing plant. In hot weather, heat accumulation in crates can cause distress and mortality before slaughter even occurs. The transition to controlled atmosphere killing systems that slaughter birds in their transport modules eliminates much of this welfare burden by removing lairage, live shackling, and inverted hanging from the process entirely.