Throughout the world, living animals are transported across country borders. Whilst transported for many purposes e.g., slaughtering and fattening abroad, a global view of the drivers of these transports remains missing. We performed a systematic analysis of the available body of scientific literature to get an overview of the existing literature on this topic and the knowledge gaps concerning the transport of living animals across national borders. We found a total of 24 containing statements and examples about factors driving and shaping the international trade of live animals. We found that drivers could be categorized into political, economic, technical, socio-cultural and environmental drivers. In addition, we found that the described main challenges related to livestock transport concern animal welfare and diseases. Our study shows a vast potential for further exploration, specifically regarding the analysis of the grey literature.