Pig transport is a major welfare event involving handling, loading, travel stress, and unloading. Millions of pigs are transported annually, making transport welfare improvements high-impact.
Pigs experience multiple welfare insults during transport: novelty of the vehicle, unfamiliar penmates and resulting fighting, temperature extremes, motion sickness, and the stress of loading and unloading. Transport mortality and injuries including lesions from fighting are measurable welfare indicators used to assess transport quality. Shorter journeys, familiar group transport, temperature monitoring, and trained handlers reduce welfare harms significantly. The welfare case for local slaughter - reducing transport distance - is strong but complicated by economic realities of slaughterhouse consolidation.