Transport to slaughter is among the highest-stress experiences for poultry, with management improvements significantly reducing welfare impacts.
Poultry transport represents a concentrated welfare risk period where millions of birds are simultaneously handled, crated, transported, and processed. The combination of capture stress, overcrowded transport conditions, temperature extremes, and novel stimuli creates significant welfare costs that compound across the entire poultry industry's output. Improvements in catching technology, transport timing, container design, and journey management have reduced the worst outcomes, but the fundamental challenge of humanely handling billions of birds through this process remains. Consumer demand for higher welfare products creates economic incentives for continued improvement.