Sea lice are a major welfare and production problem in Atlantic salmon farming, and treatment methods carry their own welfare costs requiring careful management.
Sea lice management in salmon farming involves difficult welfare trade-offs. Untreated lice cause chronic suffering through skin damage and physiological stress. But treatment methods carry their own welfare costs - thermal and chemical treatments cause acute distress, and high lice burdens requiring repeated treatment compound cumulative stress. Cleaner fish (wrasse) used as biological control face their own welfare concerns as they are often poorly managed. The welfare-optimal approach minimizes lice burden through integrated pest management, uses treatments at the lowest effective doses, and ensures cleaner fish welfare is actively managed.