Livestock transport is a major welfare risk period, involving stress, injury, and death. Evidence-based transport standards and journey time limits protect animal welfare.
Livestock transport is an unavoidable welfare challenge requiring rigorous management. The stress of transport — from loading through journey to unloading — involves cumulative physiological stress from multiple concurrent stressors. Journey time, temperature, stocking density, vehicle design, handling quality, and fitness-to-travel assessment all contribute to outcome. Welfare improvement requires enforcing existing regulations, reducing journey times where alternatives exist (e.g., abattoirs closer to farms), investing in vehicle design and ventilation, and training transport operators in low-stress handling. The welfare case for regional slaughter infrastructure reducing transport distances is strong.