Target: Increase survival rate from release to slaughter
The main target for fish health and welfare is to increase fish survival rates from release to slaughter. All employees involved in fish farming take part in training focusing on fish welfare. Fish welfare is developed and monitored by keeping use of medicines to a minimum, with careful assessment of use, using only approved medicines which have documented environmental impact in accordance with the requirements of SLV, monitoring and documenting tolerance, and following up biological feed factors.
We cooperate locally, through zone cooperation, and nationally through various R&D projects and research environment for an even better fish health and fish welfare.
There is a major research project going on that have the intention og arrive at a definition for fish welfare that include physiological function, feelings and living conditions.
Cage density, i.e. how much space the fish have in the cages, also influences fish welfare.
The maximum limit is 25 kg/m3 but the results for 2017 were far below this limit, indicating that the fish have plenty of space in the cages. Fish health and fish welfare are at the core of our operations as a producer of Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout. As such, we have both ethical and statutory obligations governed by Norwegian legislation. A healthy fish is also a good fish for production and a prerequisite for good financial results. There are therefore numerous incentives for putting fish health and fish welfare at the top of the agenda for fish-farming operations. In an effort to ensure that we continuously fulfil these obligations, the Group has chosen to invest substantial resources in preventive measures for fish health, and this is now a major part of the production strategy for the entire Group. At the end of 2017, the companies in the Lerøy Seafood Group had 16 employees who are fish health biologists/ veterinary surgeons, as well as buying in external fish health services. An interdisciplinary approach is required to solve the challenges related to fish health and to ensure that the correct and necessary preventive action is taken. The interaction between factors such as technology, the environment, fish disease, nutrition and production biology is part of the whole, and forms the basis for how we as a Group work with preventive fish health.
In a cage with fish there will be 97% water and 3% fish.
BACTERIAL TREATMENTS
Salmon is by far the healthiest "farmed animal" among the species from which food is produced here in Norway. No antibiotics have been administered to fish in 2017.
Lerøy Seafood Group's goal is not to use medicines. The Group will not use any kind of antibiotics unless necessary for fish welfare. Neither do we use anti-inflammatories, hormones or growth promotion treatments in our production.