How the journey from farm to slaughter plant affects poultry welfare and what improvements to transport conditions can reduce suffering.
Poultry transport involves a cascade of welfare challenges that each contribute to the overall suffering of individual birds during the final hours of their lives. From the fear and injury risk of catching through the thermal stress and social disruption of crowded transport crates to the noise and handling at slaughter plants, welfare opportunities for improvement exist at every stage. The scale is enormous - billions of birds annually - meaning that even marginal improvements in transport welfare have massive aggregate impact. Reducing journey times, improving ventilation and thermal management, and training catching teams to handle birds with care are all practical improvements that can be implemented within existing systems.