Welfare issues and their utility components, indicating the relative strength of preference for each level of welfare provision on each issue.

Each issue had 2–5 utility levels demonstrating the perceived importance for animal welfare. The issues are listed in declining order of importance value (the difference that each issue made to the total of all the utility values for each respondent). The average importance and zero-centred utility values are listed for each issue, as rated by respondents (n = 267), who were stakeholders in the animal transportation and slaughter sectors, to a questionnaire on the major welfare issues in the Chinese livestock transport and slaughter industry.