Selective breeding programs for farmed Atlantic salmon increasingly incorporate welfare traits alongside production traits, offering a pathway to genetically improved welfare outcomes.
Genetic selection represents a scalable approach to welfare improvement in aquaculture, as improvements bred into foundation stock propagate automatically through production systems. The salmon breeding industry is increasingly receptive to welfare trait inclusion following consumer and regulatory pressure. Sea lice resistance selection is particularly promising because lice infestation causes chronic pain, skin damage, and secondary infection — reducing lice burden through genetics would address one of the most significant welfare harms in global salmon farming.