Poultry transport to slaughter involves significant welfare risks from climate exposure, handling, and journey duration. Evidence-based standards can substantially reduce these risks.
Poultry transport welfare involves a concentration of welfare risks in a brief period that affects hundreds of millions of birds annually. The catching phase causes the most acute injuries - manual catchers working rapidly in dim-lit sheds cause broken bones and dislocations in a significant proportion of birds. Temperature extremes during transport kill birds through hypothermia in cold weather and hyperthermia in summer - both prolonged, distressing processes. Holding at slaughter plants before killing adds additional time under stress conditions. The sheer scale means that even modest welfare improvements - better temperature management, mechanical harvesting adoption, shorter holding times - translate to welfare improvements for tens of millions of birds.