Welfare Evaluation of Stunning Practices for Farmed Fish in the European Union

An optimal method for stunning animals before slaughter should result in instantaneous and irreversible insensibility. Today, there are various stunning and slaughter practices used around the world for farmed fish. With aquaculture being a growing food sector, the welfare of the animals used has become increasingly important in the consciousness of consumers, researchers and regulatory bodies. With growing research into the subject matter, an overview to summarize and examine how these practices impact on the welfare of the fish, and how well they conform to animal welfare legislation, is warranted to minimize the suffering of farmed fish. Stunning practices used in aquaculture include methods such as electrical and percussive stunning, carbon dioxide and asphyxiation. Each with its own level of effectiveness in terms of how fast the method results in loss of consciousness, whether or not the effect is reversible and how the welfare of the fish is affected as determined by behavioural and physiological stress responses. It was concluded that there is no unambiguous answer as to which stunning method is optimal in regard to animal welfare in modern day aquaculture. The optimal method for a given facility is influenced by factors like practicalities relating to each individual method as well as legislation on EU and national level. Suggestions were made for future research.