The lairage period before slaughter is a critical welfare moment for pigs. Mixing, crowding, and handling stress during this period determines pre-slaughter welfare quality.
Lairage represents the last significant welfare moment before slaughter, and it is frequently managed in ways that impose substantial suffering. The mixing of unfamiliar pigs triggers fighting that causes injuries, exhaustion, and fear in a period when animals can no longer escape. The welfare evidence for keeping transport groups together in lairage — avoiding mixing — is robust and the economic argument (reduced bruising and stress-related meat quality defects) is aligned. CO2 pig stunning — used in most large commercial abattoirs — involves a period of distress before insensibility as pigs experience the aversive sensations of high CO2 concentration. Alternative gas combinations including inert gas stunning are available and more welfare-positive, but capital costs have slowed adoption. Pre-slaughter welfare receives less regulatory attention than on-farm welfare despite concentrated suffering in a very short period.