Bruising of sheep results in economic loss to the meat industry and is one indicator of welfare problems associated with pre-slaughter management. This study relates potentially traumatic handling and behavioural events (wool-pull, tail-pull, fall, hit structure, riding, head-butt, other) during loading on farms, unloading and handling at a slaughterhouse, the initial 3 h in the lairage, and conditions during transport, to the occurrence of carcase bruising of 79 groups of sheep (n=2509) transported direct from farms to one of two commercial slaughterhouses.