Improving Animal Welfare in Aquaculture Systems

JUN 11, 2020

At BAADER, we respect living resources and continuously strive for the highest standards in animal welfare. It is our objective to ensure environmental, transportation, and slaughtering conditions will prevent stress and suffering for the animals. To set new standards for the well-being of the animals we process, partnerships with customers, stakeholders and research institutes have been the foundation of our success.

BAADER recently joined the university of Kiel and 78 project partners from academia, industry and administration for a several years spanning project on bio economy on marine sites (BaMs). The project is funded with over 20 Million Euro by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). BAADER is primarily involved in a sub-project that is aiming at improving animal welfare in aquaculture systems.

The project is set to kick-off in August 2020 and is termed for three years. The focus is to collect so-called bio-indicators that can point to the health condition and stress level of the farmed fish.

Ecologically sensitive and sustainable aquaculture will become more important going forward. The development of corresponding plants and the research of new processes has a high potential for innovation, which we want to further promote and decisively advance in the new project,

says Professor Rüdiger Schulz, Botanical Institute, University of Kiel, who is leading the project together with Professor Carsten Schulz, Institute for Animal Breeding and Animal Husbandry at the Faculty of Agriculture and Nutrition.

The innovation area "Bioeconomy at Marine Sites (BaMS)" puts aquacultures with aquatic organisms from fresh and salt water at the centre of a comprehensive circular economy © Christian Ridder — The innovation area "**Bioeconomy at Marine Sites (BaMS)**" puts aquacultures with aquatic organisms from fresh and salt water at the centre of a comprehensive circular economy © Christian Ridder

Dr. Pia Meinlschmidt, Product Manager, BAADER adds: “Optimizing the process from farming to slaughtering is not only relevant for ethical reasons. Minimum stress significantly improves final product quality which is not only of high importance to our customers but especially to the end consumer”.

Until now, the knowledge surrounding the specific parameters that can positively or negatively impact the well-being of farmed fish has been limited. The BaMs project aims at providing new insights.

For more information surrounding the BaMs project: https://www.uni-kiel.de/de/detailansicht/news/109-biooekonomie