Autor(es):
Martins, Catarina I. M. 
; Galhardo, Leonor ; Noble, Chris ; Damsgard, Børge ; Spedicato, Maria T. ; Zupa, Walter ; Beauchaud, Marilyn ; Kulczykowska, Ewa ; Massabuau, Jean-Charles ; Carter, Toby ; Planellas, Sonia Rey ; Kristiansen, Tore
Data: 2012
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.12/1832
Origem: Repositório do ISPA - Instituto Universitário
Assunto(s): Fish behaviour; Well-being; Aquaculture; Operational welfare indicators; Mental states; Stress; Appraisal
Descrição
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 rewardrelated
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.
