ICFAW side event at WOAH 99th General Session: Improving Animal Welfare for Stronger Aquaculture

Context: The WOAH aquatic code has a chapter on welfare during transport and welfare during slaughter. Both remain largely up to date in terms of being correct in their content, however both are limited to general principles and higher level guidance. They do not contain specific parameters for different species animals, for oxygen levels during transport or electrical stunning parameters for example. They could be expanded to reflect the much larger knowledge base we now have on species-specific parameters as well as available technology. The WOAH aquatic strategy to 2025 has an action point to review the welfare chapters for how up to date their science is. We would like to see an action to update these chapters in a future aquatic strategy. The aquatic strategy to 2025 set the objective to create a new chapter in the aquatic code addressing biosecurity. We are very keen to promote stress reduction, supporting natural immune function, and good environmental conditions as the basis, or at least an important part, of biosecurity in this ongoing standards development.