Animal Health and Welfare

Norway
Openwater ranching systems
 Openwater ranching systems
• Disadvantages regarding animal health and
welfare
– Crowding
– Handling
– Stress
– Spread of diseases
– LODOS (Low Dissolved Oxygen Syndrome)
– Exposed to quality of water body they are in
– Poor nutrition (if not properly managed)
 Infectious Diseases
• Bacterial diseases well controlled (vibriosis,
furunculosis,etc.)
– Thanks to (90s):
• Improved enviromental practices
• Fish vaccinces
• Antibiotics (50 tons/year in 1987 to 1000kg/year)
• Viral and parasitic diseases are the main
concerns
 Viral diseases
• Most disease problems along the Norwegian
coast are caused by virus.

BERGHEIM,A.Recent growth trends and challenges in the Norwegian aquaculture industry. Lat. Am.
J. Aquat. Res., 40(3): 800-807, 2012 International Conference: “Environment and Resources of the
South Pacific”
 Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA)
• Huge damaging effects in salmon industry in
Chile and Faroe Islands
• International expert group established to
enhance knowledge base
Pancreas Disease (PD)
• 2009 – 75 farm sites
– seemed to be
moving north
• 2015 – reports of
escaped infected
salmon and rainbow
trout after Nina
storm
 Heart and Skeleton Muscle
Inflammatin (HSMI)
• Frequent and fatal disesase since 1999
• Associated with Piscine reovirus – heart attack
and prevents them from swimming upstream
 Infectious Pancreas Disease (IPD)
• Incidents in 53 hatcheries and 170 cage garms
in 2009 – highest number ever reported
• Mortality may reach high levels – hatcheries
• Survivors often had reduced growth (IPN-
losers)
 Sea lice

• Lepeophtheirus
salmonis
• Salmon and Trout
 Lepeophtheirus salmonis

• Hematophagous and dermatophagous

• Increases susceptibility to other infections
(wounds and stress)
• Reduced growth (loss of apetite and spoliation)
• Higher mortality
• Lice treatment
• May be vector for PD
• Increase in recent years due to:
– Greater density of fish farms
– Global warming
 Combat of Salmon Lice
• Highly adaptible – difficult
to combat
• Resistant to common drugs
(emamectin nad
pyrethroids)
• Medication in encolsed
tarpaulin cages
• Alternative treatments
– Thermolicer (30-34oC)
– Hydrolicer (freshwater;
AGD)
– Cleaner fish – Wrasse and
lumpsuckers, goldsinnis –eat
lice
– Breeding of lice resistant
salmon – more virulent lice
agains wild salmon
 Amoebic Gill Disease (AGD)
• Marine fish(salmon)
• Neoparamoeba perurans
• Proliferative response in gill
epithelium – thickening – loss
of oxygen diffusion – anoxia
• No cure
• Bathing whole cages in
freshwater is the most
recognized treatment –
expensive and difficult
 Animal Welfare
• Why is it important

Fish are able to experience pain, fear and psychological stress . This implies
that fish have the capacity to suffer, and that welfare consideration for
farmed fish should take these states into account.
 Animal Welfare
• Stressors in intensive aquaculture
– Broodstock stripping
– Handling
– Vaccinations
– Crowding
– Grading
– Starvation(
• Before transport and slaughter
• Reduce growth rate until market price rise
– Sea lice treatments
– Loading and transport
– Welfare of wild fish used to feed farmed fish
– No freedom express normal behavior
 Animal Welfare
• Consequences:
- injury
- stress
- increased disease susceptibility
- impaired performance
- higher mortality rate
- deformities – due to faster and bigger growth
rates
Human Health
Contaminants and Residues in Fish

• Antibiotics
• Synthetic pigments
• Pesticides (toxic
copper sulphate) for
algi control
• Water contaminants
(PCBs, dyoxins, heavy
metals – cd, lead,etc.)
 Contaminants and Residues in Fish
• Polluted waters 
contamination of wild fish
 fish used in farmed fish
feed  contamination of
farmed fish  human
consumption

• Consequences
– Cancer
– Children – neurocognitive
problems
Contaminants in Farmed Fish

• Farmed salmon contains

more contaminants than
wild salmon (7x PCB)

• European-raised salmon
have significantly greater
contaminant loads than
those raised in North and
South America

• Risk analysis indicates that

consumption of farmed
Atlantic salmon may pose
health risks that detract
from the beneficial effects
of fish consumption.
 Contaminants and Residues
• Since 1990 (beginning of analyses):
– 1 sample of farmed fish with residues of illegal
drugs
- level of approved drugs and other undesirable
substances analysed have been below internationally
accepted limits in all species of farmed fish investigated
- low levels of organic contaminants and heavy
metals in farmed fish fillets compared to the EU’s upper
limits

Good safety with respect to drug residues and

contaminants
Contaminants and Residues
Contaminants and Residues in shellfish
from Norway
• Can accumulate heavy metals and toxi algae
• Fairly low levels of heavy metals
– Cadmium sometimes in large amounts in bron
meat of edible crab
Nutritional Value
Nutritional Value
• By comparing the fatty acid
composition of over 3,000
Scottish Atlantic salmon farmed
between 2006 and 2015, we find
that terrestrial fatty acids have
significantly increased alongside a
decrease in EPA and DHA levels.
Consequently, the nutritional
value of the final product is
compromised requiring double
portion sizes, as compared to
2006, in order to satisfy
recommended EPA + DHA intake
levels endorsed by health advisory
organisations. Nevertheless,
farmed Scottish salmon still
delivers more EPA + DHA than
most other fish species and all
terrestrial livestock.
 Zoonoses
• Contamination of seafood by Listeria
monocytogenes,
• Accumulation of infectious matter by shells
• Roundworms – Anisakis spp.
 Listeriosis
• Listeria monocytogenes
• Common environmental and processing
facility contaminating bacterium that may be
transferred to seafood products
• No cases in Norway have been linked to
commercially produced seafood
 Anisakis spp.
• Infection if
ingested live
(sushi,
sashimi,etc.)
• Farmed fish in
Norway to not
have nematodes
of human health
concern