ISSUE FOCUS FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE August 2025 37 Public Health Environmental Sustainability Farming practices that foreground both welfare and health lead to resource efficiency and reduced environmental impact Prioritizing innovative, welfare-centric advancements in aquaculture ensures a higher quality of life for farmed aquatic animals, minimizes product loss and reputational risk, and enhances final product quality, aligning with consumer expectations for ethically sourced seafood Ethical farming practices ensure that aquaculture systems are both safe for consumers and beneficial to local communities Welfare-centric practices minimize disease risks, reduce reliance on antibiotics, and enhance food safety Innovation in sustainable farming techniques improve resource efficiency and reduce environmental impact Sustainable practices reduce disease risk and minimize environmental degradation, ensuring healthier ecosystems and safer food Responsible Development Harmonizing Animal Health and Welfare in Modern Aquaculture levels in captivity. Hunger, poor gut health, or aggressive competition can result in chronic suffering. Novel feed ingredients, such as algae, offer promising alternatives to traditional marine ingredients. But trials must evaluate more than growth and cost. They should assess welfare outcomes like behavioral diversity, gut integrity, and satiety. In a recent Fishes1 article, we argue for this expanded approach to feed evaluation as a pathway to systems-level improvement. One concrete success comes from the F3 (FishFree Feed) Challenge, which aimed to accelerate the adoption of non-FMFO aquafeeds. By the end of its third round, competitors had collectively spared over one billion forage fish from being reduced into feed. This result is not just a win for the environment, it represents a massive reduction in suffering for wildcaught fish, which are typically unassessed and unprotected in current animal welfare frameworks. REDESIGNING THE SYSTEM: FROM CARNIVORES TO CROP-FED FISH The more sustainable and humane aquaculture systems may be those that raise herbivorous or omnivorous species on well-balanced, largely plant-based diets. Shifting industry focus from prestige carnivores like salmon and tuna toward more resilient, efficient species like tilapia, pangasius, and bivalves could drastically reduce pressure on wild fish populations while improving welfare outcomes. These species thrive on lower-protein diets, are less aggressive, and have husbandry needs more easily met in closed systems. As outlined in Frontiers in Animal Science2, scaling “artisanal” approaches, those that emphasize lower trophic species, better local feed use, and context-sensitive welfare, provide an important pathway forward. FROM VOLUNTARY STANDARDS TO INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE In 2024, we helped co-develop a pioneering crustacean welfare policy with Hilton Foods, one of the largest protein suppliers in Europe. The policy, which bans eyestalk ablation, mandates pre-slaughter stunning, and introduces enrichment expectations, was recognized across industry media and credited in Hilton’s sustainability report as setting a “benchmark for the industry.”
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUxNjkxNQ==