Pre-slaughter handling of farmed salmon causes significant stress and potentially pain. Welfare-positive slaughter methods including percussive stunning followed by bleeding are increasingly adopted.
Pre-slaughter management is a significant welfare issue for farmed salmon that has received increasing attention from both scientists and welfare organizations. The sequence of crowding, transfer, and killing involves multiple stressors for fish whose capacity for suffering is increasingly recognized. Ice slurry killing, still widely used, involves prolonged exposure to near-freezing temperatures that may not cause rapid insensibility. Percussive stunning, while requiring more infrastructure, can achieve near-instantaneous insensibility when properly implemented. Welfare-conscious salmon production requires investment in humane slaughter systems and rigorous monitoring of their effectiveness.