Scientists at the University of Stirling have authored a new report providing guidance on identifying and strengthening best practices for animal welfare in aquaculture.
The paper – published by the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) – states that a better understanding of the welfare of farmed fish, centring on the concepts of sentience and cognition, is essential for the improvement of care standards.
The 56-page report, Farmed fish welfare practices: salmon farming as a case study, is authored by Dr Sonia Rey Planellas, Professor Dave Little, and Dr Maureen Ellis, all of the University of Stirling’s Institute of Aquaculture.
The team reviewed existing best practices in animal welfare in aquaculture – focusing on salmon as a model species – and looked at the factors that lead to poor welfare, including stocking density, water flow, water quality, vaccination and grading, handling, transport, parasites and diseases, and humane slaughter. They then identified key operating indicators (KOIs) in farmed salmon and compared them to KOIs for other farmed seafood species, to determine if best practices in animal welfare in salmon could be applied to tilapia and catfish.
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