Tilapia farming faces significant disease challenges that compromise both production and welfare. Understanding the diseases affecting farmed tilapia and their welfare implications is essential for sustainable aquaculture.
Disease in farmed tilapia causes welfare harm at two levels: the direct suffering caused by infection, and the treatment responses that often involve chemical exposure or overcrowding during harvest. Tilapia Lake Virus mortality events can kill 70-90% of affected fish populations in acute outbreaks, representing mass death events with significant welfare dimensions. The rapid spread of TiLV illustrates how global aquaculture intensification creates conditions for disease emergence and spread that harm both production and animal welfare. Vaccination against bacterial disease, combined with improved water quality management and lower stocking densities, offers a welfare-positive approach to disease control that also serves production sustainability.