Farmed catfish welfare includes channel catfish in North America and pangasius in Southeast Asia, both requiring attention to water quality, stocking density and humane slaughter.
Farmed catfish welfare shares common themes with other aquaculture species — water quality management, stocking density limits, handling minimization and humane slaughter — but requires species-specific approaches given the unique physiology of catfish including their tolerance for variable water conditions and their defensive spines. Harvest welfare is particularly important as crowding during pond dewatering creates acute stress at the end of the production cycle. Pre-slaughter stunning validation for catfish species is needed to ensure that methods effective for other species provide adequate welfare for these fish. Channel catfish and pangasius are both produced in very large volumes, making welfare improvements at the industry level impactful for very large numbers of animals.