Aquaculture

Aquaculture Disease Management Welfare

Disease outbreaks in aquaculture cause mass fish mortality and suffering. Prevention through biosecurity, vaccination, and management is more welfare-positive than reactive treatment.

Key Facts

Infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) can cause 90% mortality in affected salmon farms
Vaccine programs have effectively controlled some major diseases including furunculosis in salmon
Crowding during disease outbreaks causes welfare harm beyond the disease itself
Early disease detection allows treatment intervention before mortality rates escalate
Fallowing - resting farm sites - breaks disease transmission cycles and is the most effective prevention

Welfare Considerations

Aquaculture disease welfare is a cascade: disease causes suffering, crowding for treatment causes additional welfare harm, and mass mortality represents welfare failure at enormous scale. Prevention through biosecurity, vaccination, and site management is the most welfare-positive strategy. Reactive management that waits for disease establishment before acting inevitably produces worse welfare outcomes.

What You Can Do

Support aquaculture certification schemes requiring disease prevention planning and biosecurity
Choose farmed fish from suppliers with documented vaccination programs for major diseases
Advocate for fallowing requirements in salmon farming regulations to prevent disease accumulation
Support research into disease prevention and monitoring technologies in aquaculture