Transporting alpacas and llamas requires understanding of their specific behavioral responses to handling and confinement. Good transport management significantly reduces welfare costs.
Camelid transport welfare is an area where the specific nature of the species matters enormously. Camelids transported standing in ways appropriate for cattle may injure themselves or become severely stressed, whereas understanding their natural cushing behavior allows for appropriate floor space allocation and trailer configuration. The link between transport stress and subsequent respiratory disease is particularly important: what appears to be a successful journey can be followed by pneumonia days later, indicating that transport stress suppressed immune function sufficiently to allow bacterial colonization. Monitoring camelids carefully in the week following any transport journey, with particular attention to respiratory signs, is a basic but important welfare practice.