This project, funded by the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) and Migros, assesses invasive, physiological and non-invasive parameters to evaluate fish welfare by comparing intensive and semi-intensive trout production conditions on a commercial fish farm in Switzerland
Workpackage fish welfare:
Intensity of production, production environment and handling of fish are regarded as potential impact factors on fish welfare and fish health by aquacultural scientists. The evaluation of the animal welfare in regard to external stressors is often difficult due to a limited amount of useful indicators and published results, e.g. pain perception of fish, although scientifically validated, is often heavily disputed by scientists.
Therefore this project includes observations on a commercial trout farm which are used to identify and test new non-invasive fish welfare- indicators by using conventional invasive indicators. The research will include ethological as well as physiological and morphological traits.
Furthermore the project aims at evaluating specific production parameters (intensive vs. semi-intensive) regarding their influence on welfare, health and product quality. For that the whole production systems will be compared as well as single factors for their impact on fish behavior, health and animal welfare.
Uni Bern (FiWi), BVET, Migros Genossenschaftsbund
