Black tiger prawn farming is one of Asia's most significant aquaculture industries, with welfare concerns around stocking density, disease, and slaughter methods.
The welfare status of prawns is genuinely uncertain but sufficient evidence exists for sentience to require precautionary welfare consideration. At the production scale of billions of animals annually, even a small probability of welfare-relevant experience translates to enormous aggregate moral concern. Current slaughter methods have not been validated as humane for crustaceans. Antibiotic overuse driven by disease pressure reflects the welfare-food safety connection common across intensive aquaculture.