Aquaculture

Farmed Salmon Deformity: Jaw and Spinal Welfare Outcomes

Jaw and spinal deformities cause chronic welfare compromise in affected farmed salmon throughout their production lives.

Key Facts

Jaw deformities impair feeding ability and cause misdirected aggression
Spinal deformities compress the spinal cord causing neurological pain
Hatchery water temperature and density management are primary deformity risk factors
Deformity monitoring at first feeding and again at sea transfer enables culling of severely affected fish

Welfare Considerations

Deformed salmon experience chronic pain and feeding difficulty. The welfare case for identifying and humanely culling severely deformed fish early - rather than growing them to market weight - is strong. Hatchery condition improvements reduce the number of deformed fish entering production.

What You Can Do

Support aquaculture standards requiring deformity monitoring and welfare culling protocols
Advocate for mandatory deformity rate reporting in certified salmon aquaculture
Choose salmon from farms with published hatchery welfare data