Genetic selection in salmon aquaculture shapes welfare outcomes across the entire production cycle, with breeding programs increasingly incorporating welfare traits alongside production metrics.
Salmon genetics represents an upstream welfare intervention - traits selected in breeding programs determine the health, stress resilience, and welfare outcomes of millions of fish across their production lives. The historical focus on growth rate and feed conversion has inadvertently selected for some traits with negative welfare implications. The explicit inclusion of welfare traits - disease resistance, stress response modulation, skeletal health - in breeding objectives represents a significant shift toward systematically improving welfare through genetics rather than treating it as an incidental consequence of production optimization. Consumer and regulatory support for welfare-trait inclusion in breeding programs could accelerate this positive direction.