The journey to slaughter is one of the most stressful experiences in a pig's life. Understanding the welfare costs of transport and lairage enables better regulation and management practices.
Pig transport involves sequential welfare insults: loading from familiar farm environments, confinement in unfamiliar vehicles, vibration, noise, temperature extremes and social disruption from mixing. Each element is individually stressful, and their combination during a single journey can cause acute suffering. Pigs that collapse or die during transport - known as dead on arrival or downers - represent the most visible welfare failure, but the majority of transported pigs experience significant stress that is harder to quantify. Lairage conditions at abattoirs are the final opportunity to reduce welfare costs before slaughter, and resting, watering and gentle handling in this period can partially recover animals from transport stress.