Welfare

US - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists are expecting that this year's Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone, also called the "dead zone," will be approximately 5,483 square miles or about the size o…

CANADA - Researchers who paired Siamese fighting fish in mock fights found that winning fish could supply more energy to their muscles during fights than losing fish.

EU - A draft law to ban the cloning of all farm animals, their descendants and products derived from them, including imports, in the EU was voted by the Environment and Agriculture committees yesterday (Wednesday 17 June…

AUSTRALIA - A new online risk assessment tool will help the fishing, shipping and boating industry protect Western Australias marine environment from invasive marine pests.

In recent years, piscine reovirus has emerged as a pathogen of interest to European salmon producers. The complete spectrum of effects that this virus has on infected fish is not yet fully understood, making it difficult…

A new study from The University of Cambridge shows that cichlid fish reared in larger social groups from birth display a greater and more extensive range of social interactions.

Fish fed polystyrene nanoparticles are less active and show changes to theirbrains and metabolism, according to a study by Swedish and Danish researchers.The findings suggest that nanoparticles in the environment could h…

UK - Catherine (Cat) Sayer has been elected as Chair of the UK's National Office of Animal Health (NOAH) for 2015, following this years AGM in London on 21 May.

A type of microsporidian parasite is severely affecting aquaculture in Asia. This report by Dr Stephen Newman addresses best practice in reducing the pathogen. Taken from the Global Aquaculture Advocate, a Global Aquacul…

Fish species capable of warming their body core are able to swim two and a half times faster than those whose body temperature does not change, according to a study from the University of California, Santa Barbara and ot…

CHILE - Chilean mussel farm Pesquera Apiao SA is the worlds first group to achieve two-star Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) status for mussels, the Global Aquaculture Alliance has announced.

SCOTLAND, UK - Predatory seals are constraining the recovery of cod stocks in Scottish West coast waters, research led by the University of Strathclyde suggests.

EU - The European Commission is to launch a Eurobarometer survey into animal welfare this year.

CANADA - A Canadian federal judge has ruled against the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in allowing Marine Harvest to trsansfer sick salmon smolts from their hatchery to their farm in Shelter Bay, British Columbia.

EUROPE - MSD Animal Health (known as Merck Animal Health in the USA and Canada) has introduced a new single-injection vaccine that protects against the three main pathogens affecting salmon in the UK and Ireland- pancrea…

NEW ZEALAND - New Zealands Animal Welfare Amendment Bill received unanimous support during its third and final reading in Parliament this week.

US - Researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and other organisations have developed a model to help regulators improve the resilience of US scallop fisheries to climate change and ocean acidification.

GLOBAL - Marine 'dead zones' with extremely low oxygen levels have been discovered several hundred kilometres off the coast of West Africa by researchers from Germany and Canada.

US - Sockeye salmon highly infected with sea lice are much less successful at consuming food than lightly infected fish, according to new research from Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the University of Toronto.

BELGIUM - Scientists at Ghent University have uncovered a way to detect chronic stress in fish, by using the build up of chemicals in scales as a record of the fish's life.