养殖鱼类屠宰过程中的动物福利

动物福利是人类倡导的可持续发展的重要表现之一,正受到全球各国越来越多的关注。伴随着经济全球化和贸易自由化,传统非关税壁垒不断被消除或规范。在这种形势下,随着动物福利意识的不断加强,一些发达国家利用自己国家的动物福利法案为屏障,阻止一些国家的动物及动物源性商品的进口,将动物福利与国际贸易紧密结合,形成了这种新的贸易壁垒。     

鱼类福利的基本概念

本刊讯：所谓鱼类福利，就是让鱼类在健康快乐状态下生存和生长发育，通常包括身体和精神二大类，其标准包括鱼类无任何疾病、无行为异常、无生理紧张压抑和痛苦等。[第一段]     

水产养殖动物的福利及其维护和应用

对动物福利的涵义、国内外对动物福利的要求进行了研究,结合水产养殖认证指南、欧盟良好养殖规范、最佳养殖规范和中国良好农业规范(GAP)标准中对水产养殖过程中维护动物福利的要求,总结出维护和应用水产养殖动物福利应关注的环节和采取的相应措施.     

水产养殖与水产动物福利浅析

早在1822年,英国颁布了一部名为《禁止残酷和不当对待牲畜法》的法案,这部法案又被称为马丁法案.马丁法案是世界上第一部由民主国家专门为禁止虐待动物而进行的国家立法.自从马丁法案颁布至今,英国、法国及其他西方国家逐渐建立了以保护动物个体利益为目的的法律体系,这些法律经过一百多年的发展、充实、完整,形成了今天的动物福利法.目前,承认并保护动物的福利已经成为一个具有普遍性的立法趋势,全世界约有100多个国家和地区制定了动物福利法或者具有动物福利内容的动物保护法.     

动物福利及GAP对水产养殖的福利要求

一、水产动物福利的现状动物福利的核心内容是“五项自由”：让动物享有不受饥渴的自由、生活舒适的自由、不受痛苦伤害的自由、生活无恐惧感和悲伤感的自由以及表达天性的自由。改善动物福利可最大限度地发挥动物的作用,让动物更好地为人类服务,可最大限度地提高畜牧生产水平,可以使动物尽可能免受不必要的痛苦。动物福利贯穿于动物的饲养、屠宰和运输过程中。     

浅淡农场动物福利对我国畜牧养殖业发展的影响

动物福利目前在全球范围内引发了越来越多的关注,也带来了越来越多亟待解决的问题。概述了农场动物福利问题对养殖效益的影响,以健康养殖和完善动物食品安全标准为目标,为中国农场动物福利化饲养的可持续发展提出了新的思考。     

养殖鱼类肉质改良与评价的研究进展

目前养殖鱼类的肉质改良主要采用遗传选育、养殖环境及饲料营养调控等技术,而鱼类肉质主要考虑外观特征、肌肉生化组成、感官评分结合质构特性及肌纤维组织学特征等方面。本文对养殖鱼类肉质改良技术及评价方法的研究概况进行了初步的综述,以期为今后养殖鱼类肉质改良技术的创新及评价标准的建立提供一定的参考。     

养殖密度对鱼类福利影响的研究进展I．死亡率、生长、摄食以及应激反应

养殖密度影响鱼类福利是鱼类生理生态学、福利学和种群生态学研究中的关键问题,已受到各国学者的关注。文章综述了养殖密度影响鱼类福利的主要研究进展,讨论了鱼类死亡率、生长、摄食以及应激反应等福利指标随养殖密度变化的规律及其描述方法；在此基础上,对鱼类福利指标随不同放养密度变化规律的研究以及应用前景进行了展望。     

Demand feeding and welfare in farmed fish

Following the development of demand-feeding systems, many experiments have been conducted to explore feeding motivation and feed intake in farmed fish. This work aims to review a selection of studies in the field, focusing on three key factors, related to demand feeding and fish welfare. Firstly, we outline how demand feeders should be considered when developing feed management strategies for improving welfare in production conditions. Secondly, via laboratory demand-feeding experiments, we show self-feeding activities depend not only on feeding motivation and social organisation, but also on individual learning capacity and risk-taking behaviour. Thirdly, we report encouraging results demonstrating that when presented with two or more self-feeders containing complementary foods, fish select a diet according to their specific nutritional requirements, suggesting that demand feeders could be used to improve welfare by allowing fish to meet their nutritional needs.     

Behavioural indicators of welfare in farmed fish

Behaviour represents a reaction to the environment as fish perceive it and is therefore a key element of fish welfare. This review summarises the main findings on how behavioural changes have been used to assess welfare in farmed fish, using both functional and feeling-based approaches. Changes in foraging behaviour, ventilatory activity, aggression, individual and group swimming behaviour, stereotypic and abnormal behaviour have been linked with acute and chronic stressors in aquaculture and can therefore be regarded as likely indicators of poor welfare. On the contrary, measurements of exploratory behaviour, feed anticipatory activity and reward-related operant behaviour are beginning to be considered as indicators of positive emotions and welfare in fish. Despite the lack of scientific agreement about the existence of sentience in fish, the possibility that they are capable of both positive and negative emotions may contribute to the development of new strategies (e.g. environmental enrichment) to promote good welfare. Numerous studies that use behavioural indicators of welfare show that behavioural changes can be interpreted as either good or poor welfare depending on the fish species. It is therefore essential to understand the species-specific biology before drawing any conclusions in relation to welfare. In addition, different individuals within the same species may exhibit divergent coping strategies towards stressors, and what is tolerated by some individuals may be detrimental to others. Therefore, the assessment of welfare in a few individuals may not represent the average welfare of a group and vice versa. This underlines the need to develop on-farm, operational behavioural welfare indicators that can be easily used to assess not only the individual welfare but also the welfare of the whole group (e.g. spatial distribution). With the ongoing development of video technology and image processing, the on-farm surveillance of behaviour may in the near future represent a low-cost, noninvasive tool to assess the welfare of farmed fish.     

Anaesthesia of farmed fish: implications for welfare

During their life cycle as farmed animals, there are several situations in which fish are subjected to handling and confinement. Netting, weighing, sorting, vaccination, transport and, at the end, slaughter are frequent events under farming conditions. As research subjects, fish may also undergo surgical procedures that range from tagging, sampling and small incisions to invasive procedures. In these situations, treatment with anaesthetic agents may be necessary in order to ensure the welfare of the fish. The main objective of this paper is to review our knowledge of the effects of anaesthetic agents in farmed fish and their possible implications for welfare. As wide variations in response to anaesthesia have been observed both between and within species, special attention has been paid to the importance of secondary factors such as body weight, water temperature and acute stress. In this review, we have limited ourselves to the anaesthetic agents such as benzocaine, metacaine (MS-222), metomidate hydrochloride, isoeugenol, 2-phenoxyethanol and quinaldine. Anaesthetic protocols of fish usually refer to one single agent, whereas protocols of human and veterinary medicine cover combinations of several drugs, each contributing to the effects needed in the anaesthesia. As stress prior to anaesthesia may result in abnormal reactions, pre-anaesthetic sedation is regularly used in order to reduce or avoid stress and is an integral part of the veterinary protocols of higher vertebrates. Furthermore, the anaesthetic agents that are used in order to obtain general anaesthesia are combined with analgesic agents that target nociception. The increased use of such combinations in fish is therefore included as a special section. Anaesthetic agents are widely used to avoid stress during various farming procedures. While several studies report that anaesthetics are effective in reducing the stress associated with confinement and handling, there are indications that anaesthesia may in itself induce a stress response, measured by elevated levels of cortisol. MS-222 has been reported to elicit high cortisol release rates immediately following exposure, while benzocaine causes a bimodal response. Metomidate has an inhibitory effect on cortisol in fish and seems to induce the lowest release of cortisol of the agents reported in the literature. Compared to what is observed following severe stressors such as handling and confinement, the amount of cortisol released in response to anaesthesia appears to be low but may represent an extra load under otherwise stressful circumstances. Furthermore, anaesthetics may cause secondary adverse reactions such as acidosis and osmotic stress due to respiratory arrest and insufficient exchange of gas and ions between the blood and the water. All in all, anaesthetics may reduce stress and thereby improve welfare but can also have unwanted side effects that reduce the welfare of the fish and should therefore always be used with caution. Finally, on the basis of the data reported in the literature and our own experience, we recommend that anaesthetic protocols should always be tested on a few fish under prevailing conditions in order to ensure an adequate depth of anaesthesia. This recommendation applies whether a single agent or a combination of agents is used, although it appears that protocols comprising combinations of agents provide wider safety margins. The analgesic effects of currently used agents, in spite of their proven local effects, are currently being debated as the agents are administrated to fish via inhalation rather than locally at the target site. We therefore recommend that all protocols of procedures requiring general anaesthesia should be complemented by administration of agents with analgesic effect at the site of tissue trauma.     

Safeguarding the welfare of farmed fish at harvest

Fish welfare at harvest is easily compromised by poor choice of handling and slaughter methods, lack of attention to detail and by unnecessary adherence to fish farming traditions. The harvest process comprises fasting the fish to empty the gut, crowding the fish, gathering and moving the fish using brails, fish pumps, and sometimes also road or boat transport and finally stunning and killing the fish. The harvesting processes commonly used for bass, bream, carp, catfish, cod, eel, halibut, pangasius, salmon, tilapia, trout, tuna and turbot are outlined. These harvesting processes are discussed; the consequences for fish welfare identified and practical tests which can be made at the harvest site highlighted. Welfare at harvest for the majority of farmed fish species can be improved by adopting and adapting existing procedures already known to be beneficial for fish welfare through their use in other fish farming systems or with other species. It is seldom necessary to develop completely new concepts or methods.     

Health of farmed fish: its relation to fish welfare and its utility as welfare indicator

This brief review focuses on health and biological function as cornerstones of fish welfare. From the function-based point of view, good welfare is reflected in the ability of the animal to cope with infectious and non-infectious stressors, thereby maintaining homeostasis and good health, whereas stressful husbandry conditions and protracted suffering will lead to the loss of the coping ability and, thus, to impaired health. In the first part of the review, the physiological processes through which stressful husbandry conditions modulate health of farmed fish are examined. If fish are subjected to unfavourable husbandry conditions, the resulting disruption of internal homeostasis necessitates energy-demanding physiological adjustments (allostasis/acclimation). The ensuing energy drain leads to trade-offs with other energy-demanding processes such as the functioning of the primary epithelial barriers (gut, skin, gills) and the immune system. Understanding of the relation between husbandry conditions, allostatic responses and fish health provides the basis for the second theme developed in this review, the potential use of biological function and health parameters as operational welfare indicators (OWIs). Advantages of function- and health-related parameters are that they are relatively straightforward to recognize and to measure and are routinely monitored in most aquaculture units, thereby providing feasible tools to assess fish welfare under practical farming conditions. As the efforts to improve fish welfare and environmental sustainability lead to increasingly diverse solutions, in particular integrated production, it is imperative that we have objective OWIs to compare with other production forms, such as high-density aquaculture. However, to receive the necessary acceptance for legislation, more robust scientific backing of the health- and function-related OWIs is urgently needed.     

Injuries and deformities in fish: their potential impacts upon aquacultural production and welfare

Fish can be the recipients of numerous injuries that are potentially deleterious to aquacultural production performance and welfare. This review will employ a systematic approach that classifies injuries in relation to specific anatomical areas of the fish and will evaluate the effects of injury upon production and welfare. The selected areas include the (1) mouth, (2) eye, (3) epidermis and (4) fins. These areas cover a large number of external anatomical features that can be injured during aquacultural procedures and husbandry practices. In particular, these injuries can be diagnosed on live fish, in a farm environment. For each anatomical feature, this review addresses (a) its structure and function and (b) defines key injuries that can affect the fish from a production and a welfare perspective. Particular attention is then given to (c) defining known and potential aquacultural risk factors before (d) identifying and outlining potential short- and long-term farming practices and mitigation strategies to reduce the incidence and prevalence of these injuries. The review then concludes with an analysis of potential synergies between risk factors the type of injury, in addition to identifying potential synergies in mitigation strategies. The paper covers both aquaculture and capture-based aquaculture.     

Achieving consensus on current and future priorities for farmed fish welfare: a case study from the UK

The welfare of farmed fish has attracted attention in recent years, which has resulted in notable changes within the aquaculture industry. However, a lack of communication between stakeholders and opposing ethical views are perceived as barriers to achieving consensus on how to improve farmed fish welfare. To address these issues, we developed an interactive approach that could be used during stakeholder meetings to (1) improve communication between different stakeholder groups, (2) build consensus on priorities for farmed fish welfare and (3) establish mechanisms to address welfare priorities. We then applied this approach during a meeting of stakeholders to identify current and future priorities for farmed fish welfare in the UK. During the meeting in the UK, stakeholders initially identified 32 areas that they felt were in need of development for future improvements in farmed fish welfare. These were further refined via peer review and discussion to the seven most important “priority” areas. Establishing a “better understanding of what good fish welfare is” emerged as the highest priority area for farmed fish welfare. The second highest priority area was “the need for welfare monitoring and documentation systems”, with mortality recording proposed as an example. The other five priority areas were “[improved understanding of] the role of genetic selection in producing fish suited to the farming environment”, “a need for integration and application of behavioural and physiological measures”, “the need for a more liberal regime in Europe for introducing new medicines”, “a need to address the issues of training existing and new workers within the industry”, and “ensuring best practise in aquaculture is followed by individual businesses”. Feedback from attendees, and the meeting outputs, indicated that the approach had been successful in improving communication between stakeholders and in achieving consensus on the priorities for farmed fish welfare. The approach therefore proved highly beneficial for future improvements in fish welfare in the UK.     

影响养殖鱼品质的关键因素和改善方法

鱼类作为高蛋白物质,日益成为人们生活中不可或缺的产品,而市场上出售的养殖鱼品质却日益低下,令人堪忧。因此,如何提高养殖鱼品质成为水产养殖技术人员研究的重点。本文就影响养殖鱼品质的因素和现有的改善方法予以综述并提出自己的见解,以供参考。     

畜禽生产中的福利问题及对策

动物福利是近年来发展起来的一门新型学科,它是动物生产高度集约化及西方社会文明的必然结果。通过福利产生的根源,畜禽各生产环节所产生的问题,及研究福利的目的和对策等四个方面阐述了动物福利研究的必要性。