Animalwelfare is an important pillar of sustainability in meat production and is associated with other aspects of
this concept, such as animal health, productivity, food safety, food quality and efficiency froma cost of production
perspective. These interactions are present at all stages of the production cycle, fromthe beginning of the animals'
farm life until their slaughter. On farm, some of the mainwelfare issues are related to neonatalmortality and low
level of sensory input, which are likely to engender stereotypes and injurious behaviours, such as tail-biting.
Pre-slaughter handling refers to the interaction between humans and animals prior to and during transport
and at slaughter. Strategies to reduce pre-slaughter stress will benefit carcass andmeat quality, being the training
of stockpeople one of the most cost-effective policies to improve animal welfare. These strategies include also
the implementation of standard monitoring procedures to detect signs of consciousness after stunning, before
sticking and during bleeding until death occurs.