Transport to slaughter is one of the most stressful experiences in a farm animal's life. Improving poultry transport welfare requires attention to journey time, loading, climate control, and handling.
Poultry transport concentrates multiple welfare insults into a brief but intense period. Loading involves catching - which causes wing and leg injuries - followed by confinement in crates at high density, exposure to temperature extremes, vibration, and noise during transport, and finally the stress of the processing plant environment. Each of these stressors is individually significant; their combination makes transport one of the highest welfare risk periods in broiler chicken production. The fact that transport mortality rates are tracked makes this a visible welfare metric. Improvements in loading technique, journey time management, vehicle climate control, and pre-slaughter handling can reduce suffering for hundreds of millions of birds annually.