Transport to slaughter is among the most stressful events in a commercial poultry bird's life. Temperature extremes, crowding, handling injuries, and journey duration create welfare problems that affect hundreds of millions of birds annually.
Poultry transport welfare sits at the intersection of scale and invisibility — hundreds of millions of birds experience acute stress, injury, and sometimes death during a process that is economically marginalised and rarely witnessed by consumers. Catching is particularly damaging: broilers with compromised musculoskeletal systems from rapid growth are vulnerable to fractures during the forced inversion of mechanical or manual catching. Journey duration, ventilation, stocking density in crates, and temperature management during transport are all welfare variables with evidence-based optimal ranges. Welfare-conscious transport management requires trained catching crews, monitored vehicle conditions, journey time limits, and mortality tracking as a welfare performance indicator.