Resolutions voted by the Annual General Meeting of the F.E.A.P.

(2011 - Oslo, Norway)

  RESOLUTION ON THE WELFARE ASPECTS OF STUNNING AND KILLING OF MEDITERRANEAN FARMED FISH FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION

RESOLUTION ON THE WELFARE ASPECTS OF STUNNING AND KILLING OF MEDITERRANEAN FARMED FISH FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION

The FEAP supports the respect of fish welfare and recognises the need for appropriate regulations on this issue when considering slaughtering methods.

Mediterranean aquaculture produces over 250,000 tonnes of gilthead sea bream and European sea bass per year, mainly raised in cages in the sea and in remote conditions. This represents slaughtering hundreds of millions of individual fish per year. These are almost entirely slaughtered using the chilling with ice in holding water method. This slaughtering methodology has been optimised over 20 years and is applied in all Mediterranean countries.

It’s important to consider that these fish have to be slaughtered directly at the production site, meaning that no live fish pre-slaughter transport is possible and slaughtering is done in most occasions in the middle of the sea operating from small sized boats. Many variables, some outside of human control, affect the circumstances of slaughtering, including weather conditions.
In its most recent proposal (May 2011), the OIE suggests avoiding such slaughtering method and groups the chilling with ice in holding water method with other slaughtering systems that are not comparable from a fish welfare point of view, such as carbon dioxide in holding water, chilling with ice and carbon dioxide in holding water, salt or ammonia baths or asphyxiation by removal from water. Besides, these last methods are barely used presently in industrial aquaculture in Europe.

Resolution:
The FEAP considers that the evaluation of slaughtering methods should be approached from a holistic perspective, including the working environment, workers security, product safety, product quality and sustainable costs, besides pure fish welfare aspects. The rationale is that slaughter methodologies that do not consider this perspective could be impractical or inapplicable due to overriding considerations.

The FEAP considers that the chilling with ice in holding water method for slaughtering fish has been demonstrated to sufficiently respect fish welfare while preserving safety and product quality (see scientific references below). For this reason this slaughtering method should be officially approved for its use on fish.

Bagni M., Civitareale C., Priori A., Ballerini A., Finoia M.G., Brambilla G., Marino G. 2007. Pre-slaughter crowding stress and killing procedures affecting quality and welfare in sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and sea bream (Sparus aurata). Aquaculture 263, 52–60.
Poli, B. M., G. Parisi, F. Scappini and G. Zampacavallo. 2005. Fish welfare and quality as affected by pre-slaughter and slaughter management. Aquaculture International 13(1-2):29-49.
Zampacavallo, G., M. Mecatti, G. Parisi, P. Lupi, G. Giorgi, E.M. Macedo Viegas and B.M. Poli. 2008. Effect of different methods for stunning/slaughtering sea bass on stress and quality indicators. In:Proceeding of the 38th WEFTA Annual Meeting, Firenze, Italy, p. 49.
Poli, B.M., F. Scappini, G. Parisi, G. Zampacavallo, M. Mecatti, P. Lupi, G. Mosconi, G. Giorgi and Vigiani V. 2004. Traditional and innovative stunning slaughtering methods for European seabass compared by the complex of the assessed behavioural, plasmatic and tissue stress and quality indexes at death and during shelf life. In Procedingns of the 34th WEFTA Conference 2004, Lubeck, Germany, p.58-63
Species-specific welfare aspects of the main systems of stunning and killing of farmed seabass and seabream. Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Animal Health and Welfare. The EFSA Journal (2009) 1010, 1-52