Publication of Commission study: 'Welfare of farmed fish: Common practices during transport and at slaughter'

Subject: Publication of Commission study: 'Welfare of farmed fish: Common practices during transport and at slaughter'

The Commission’s recently published study ‘Welfare of farmed fish: Common practices during transport and at slaughter’ was carried out to determine whether animal welfare aspects should be taken into account within legislative proposals.

The contractor’s terms of reference (TOR) instruct the contractor to ‘identify to which degree animal welfare issues are addressed during transport and at the time of killing’, and state that ‘statistical information should be provided on ... the number of fish transported, slaughtered and processed.’

The study published does not contain data on the number of individual fish involved. Only data on volume of fish is given.

Is this data already available or is it being investigated elsewhere?

If not, how is the Commission assessing the animal welfare impact of these practices, without data on the number of animals involved?

Answer given by Mr Andriukaitis on behalf of the Commission

(15 March 2018)

The standard measurement in aquaculture is not based on the number of individual fish, but on the quantity expressed in weight. The number of individual fish for certain productions can only be approximated by calculation.

This is due to the complexity of fish production, which is related to the different species, categories, size and other factors. Hence, the contractor of the study was not able to provide data on the number of individual fish involved.

The purpose of the study ‘Welfare of farmed fish: Common practices during transport and at slaughter ’ (1) was to gather information on current animal welfare practices prevailing in European aquaculture as regards the transport and slaughter of farmed fish.

The assessment of impact to the animal welfare falls within the mandate of the European Food Safety Authority which scientific opinions regarding the welfare of fish (2) were taken into account by the study.

⋅1∙ https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/facddd32-cda6-11e7-a5d5-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source-49981830

⋅2∙ Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Animal Health and Welfare on a request from the European Commission on Species specific welfare aspects of the main systems of

stunning and killing of farmed fish, http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/fishwelfare