Aquaculture

Farmed Salmon Disease Challenge Welfare

Welfare implications of infectious disease challenges in farmed salmon including ISA, amoebic gill disease, and pancreas disease.

Key Facts

Infectious Salmon Anaemia can cause mortality rates of over 50% in affected farms
Amoebic Gill Disease is now the most common and costly disease in Norwegian salmon farming
Disease outbreaks require mass culling events that cause significant acute welfare harm
Biosecurity between farms can limit disease spread if rigorously maintained
Genetic selection for disease resistance is an emerging tool for disease prevention

Welfare Considerations

Disease outbreaks in salmon farming cause mass mortality from painful conditions and require emergency culling operations. Preventing disease through biosecurity and vaccination is a welfare priority, as treatment options are limited once outbreaks occur.

What You Can Do

Support aquaculture standards that require biosecurity planning and disease management programs
Advocate for fallowing requirements between salmon production cycles to break disease cycles
Choose salmon certified to standards that demonstrate disease prevention investment