Tilapia is the second most farmed fish globally, primarily in developing countries. The rapid expansion of tilapia aquaculture creates welfare challenges that affect hundreds of millions of fish annually.
Tilapia welfare in intensive production involves chronic challenges from overcrowding, disease pressure, and water quality management. High stocking densities cause social stress, competition for resources, and injury from aggression in territorial species. Streptococcus infections cause neurological damage including abnormal swimming, blindness, and death, representing significant acute welfare events at scale. The hormone treatments used to produce all-male monosex populations for faster growth create welfare questions about embryonic fish exposure to synthetic hormones. Tilapia welfare science is less developed than salmon welfare science partly because tilapia production is concentrated in lower-income countries with less regulatory capacity. The importance of tilapia farming to smallholder food security means welfare improvement requires context-appropriate approaches.