Selective breeding in Atlantic salmon is increasingly targeting disease resistance alongside production traits. Welfare gains from reduced disease burden represent a major opportunity for improvement.
Genetic disease resistance represents a systemic welfare improvement strategy that reduces disease burden at the population level rather than treating individual cases after suffering begins. Fish with higher disease resistance experience fewer welfare-compromising infections, require fewer treatment interventions, and have better survival and growth outcomes. Breeding programmes that incorporate welfare-relevant health traits alongside production traits align commercial and welfare interests. Supporting the development and adoption of disease-resistant salmon genetics is therefore a high-leverage, durable welfare intervention with benefits that compound over successive generations.