Catfish are the most widely farmed freshwater fish in the USA and among the top globally, yet their welfare needs receive far less attention than salmon or trout. Closing this knowledge gap is essential.
Catfish represent a welfare knowledge gap in aquaculture: their production volumes are enormous, but scientific attention to their behavioral needs and welfare assessment has lagged far behind salmonid research. Catfish have sophisticated sensory systems centered on their barbels that enable complex environmental perception; barren tank environments deny the chemosensory exploration that drives natural foraging behavior. Disease outbreaks cause mass mortality events preceded by chronic suffering from infection and immune failure. Slaughter practices lack the regulatory attention given to terrestrial livestock, with many operations using methods that may not reliably produce rapid unconsciousness. Developing and adopting species-appropriate welfare standards for catfish is an urgent priority given the scale of their production.