The transport of poultry from farm to slaughter is a high-welfare-risk period involving loading, journey conditions, and lairage. EU and UK regulations set minimum standards but enforcement and compliance vary significantly.
Poultry transport welfare involves multiple sequential stressors experienced by animals with no prior handling experience. The combination of catching stress, novel environment, movement, temperature variation, and social disruption produces significant acute welfare compromise. Monitoring of DOA rates, transit duration, and temperature logs provides welfare outcome data. Certification schemes increasingly require monitoring systems including data loggers in transport vehicles. The welfare-optimal solution is reducing transport distance - local or on-farm slaughter - but this faces economic and regulatory barriers. Skilled catching, appropriate crate design, and temperature management are the most impactful practical interventions.