Lairage facilities where pigs wait before slaughter have significant welfare implications for the final hours of these animals lives.
Lairage welfare matters for the final experience of animals at the end of their lives. The combination of journey stress, unfamiliar environment, mixing with strange animals, and feed withdrawal creates compounding welfare challenges. Good lairage design with adequate space, separate penning for unfamiliar groups, water access, and appropriate temperature management addresses these challenges. The welfare case for lairage improvement is reinforced by economic benefits through reduced stress-related meat quality problems.