Transport to slaughter is one of the most welfare-significant events in poultry production, causing heat stress, cold stress, injury, and mortality. Improved monitoring systems and welfare standards are reducing but not eliminating these harms.
Poultry transport represents a welfare failure at scale. Billions of birds are transported annually under conditions that cause fear, physical injury, thermal stress, and for millions, death before reaching the slaughter facility. The welfare cost is compounded by the fact that these harms are largely at the end of a bird's life — after any suffering they may have endured during the production phase. Reducing journey times, improving vehicle design, implementing real-time temperature monitoring, and training catching crews in low-stress handling all deliver welfare improvements. Regulatory maximum journey times for poultry are a priority reform.