Tilapia farming is growing rapidly in sub-Saharan Africa as a food security strategy. Welfare challenges in small-scale African tilapia production differ from industrial Asian systems.
African tilapia welfare requires context-sensitive approaches recognising the resource constraints of smallholder systems. While tilapia tolerate poor water quality conditions that would stress other farmed fish species, tolerance does not indicate welfare - fish in poor conditions experience chronic stress that compromises immune function and growth even when mortality is low. Limited access to quality feed, veterinary support, and water quality monitoring creates welfare challenges that intensive industrial systems can address more easily. Capacity building programmes providing affordable water quality testing tools, appropriate feeds, and practical welfare training enable small-scale African tilapia farmers to improve welfare outcomes within their resource constraints.