| Sustainable aquaculture requires in-depth knowledge of the species cultured, lasting profitability of the enterprise and consumer awareness and appreciation of the eventual product. Aggression is a problem in catfish aquaculture, inherent to the species proper, changes in group composition and stress of sorting and pre-slaughter transport. Catfish are sorted during on-growth and prior to transport for slaughter. Welfare and profitability can be improved when recommendations for sorting, transport fasting and (re-)feeding are optimized according to novel insights from behavioral and physiological studies. We will investigate conditioning paradigms to stimulate a brain reward system to reduce aggression (by reducing stress) as a result of sorting or transport. We foresee that low-cost conditioning paradigms can easily be applied in aquaculture. In the ethical part we address three questions. First, do fish have a moral status and can state-of-the-art and knowledge obtained in the project on fish behaviour, cognition and emotion inform the ethical discussion on moral status and on human duties towards fish? Second, what are the central arguments and concerns of consumers and stakeholders with respect to their view on the moral status and treatment of fish, and their moral ideal of aquaculture? Third, can we reach value consensus that serves as basis for development and market introduction of improved aquaculture practices? The consortium has been drawn up for the requested interdisciplinary expertise (stress physiology, ethology, veterinary sciences, and ethics; key field 1). We address key field 2 if we can diminish aggression through conditioning . The exchange and interaction between academia and the farmers of the consortium is in accordance with key field 3 of the program. The anticipated deliverables thus comply explicitly and significantly with focus areas 4.1 (societal trends in how we treat our animals), 4.3 (robustness and adaptability), and 4.4 (natural behavior, needs and emotions) of the NWO-program. We emphasize the need to expand knowledge on fish adaptability and sentience, knowledge pivotal in our appreciation of fish proper and our ethical considerations towards fish husbandry. |
