Catfish are widely farmed in the southern US and Southeast Asia under intensive conditions with welfare challenges including crowding, low oxygen periods, and harvesting practices that deserve greater research attention.
Catfish aquaculture welfare illustrates the research investment gap in fish welfare science. Despite representing a large-scale production sector, catfish welfare knowledge lags far behind salmonid welfare because research funding has not prioritized the species. Basic questions about catfish stress responses, pain capacity, and optimal welfare management conditions are inadequately answered by current evidence. The precautionary welfare principle applies: scale of production combined with scientific uncertainty justifies management improvements that reduce likely welfare costs while the evidence base develops. Water quality management that prevents low oxygen events and harvesting practices that minimize crowding stress are achievable improvements with current knowledge.