Transporting poultry from farm to slaughter is a high-mortality welfare event requiring improvements in vehicle design, journey duration, and thermal management.
Poultry transport involves sequential welfare challenges: catching birds in darkened houses causes acute fear, loading into crates exposes birds to thermal stress from exertion and loss of thermoregulatory space, transport vehicles expose birds to temperature and vibration stress, and arrival at processing involves further handling. Each step has welfare improvement potential. Broilers bred for better locomotion are easier to catch with less injury; well-designed transport vehicles reduce thermal stress; journey time limits reduce cumulative stress. Welfare improvement at transport scale requires addressing each step systematically.