Catfish are widely farmed across Asia, Africa, and the United States, with welfare challenges including muddy pond conditions, harvest practices, and transport stress affecting millions of fish annually.
Farmed catfish welfare is affected by water quality, stocking density, harvesting methods, and transport conditions. As fish demonstrating pain responses and behavioral indicators of stress, their welfare deserves regulatory attention comparable to other farmed species. The absence of specific welfare standards for catfish production means that millions of fish are farmed without welfare benchmarks or monitoring.