Aquaculture Welfare

Salmon Disease Surveillance and Welfare

Disease surveillance in salmon farming enables early detection and treatment of health problems, reducing the duration and severity of welfare impacts from infectious disease.

Key Facts

ISA, amoebic gill disease, and sea lice are the most significant salmon health threats
Regular health surveillance enables earlier intervention before disease becomes severe
Biosecurity protocols including fallowing reduce disease transmission between sites
Sentinel fish sampled regularly provide early warning of emerging health problems
Notifiable disease reporting systems enable coordinated national disease control

Welfare Considerations

Disease surveillance transforms farm animal health management from reactive to proactive, enabling treatment before disease causes severe suffering. Robust surveillance programmes that detect problems early are both welfare and economic investments for salmon farming operations.

What You Can Do

Support mandatory disease surveillance requirements in aquaculture welfare regulations
Advocate for national salmon health monitoring programmes with public reporting
Choose salmon from farms with published health monitoring and disease history data