A one-day workshop was held at the Asian Institute of Technology on early November 2024 to introduce the objectives and activities of the new round of project funding, and to encourage reflection and dialogue on outcomes of the “Improving Farmed Fish Welfare in Asia” project and priorities and strategies for future research in Thailand. Particular attention was also given to how the network could help foster practical actions to support improved farmed fish welfare along Thai aquaculture value chains.
Short video re-cap on the event
Following initial introductions and welcomes, reflections were presented on previous work by Simao Zacarias, Dave Little and Arnan Hirunratanakorn (previous MSc Scholar and researcher on fish welfare in transport, markets and at slaughter). This highlighted the importance of considering all stages in the value chain and not just farming conditions.
This was followed by a series of presentations aimed at stimulating thought and discussion and stimulating ideas for potential future actions and collaborations. The first of these involved a video recorded with Dr Alastair Hamilton, a consultant with Nam Sai Farms on issues and opportunities for selective breeding to contribute to aquatic animal welfare. This was followed by Huw Thomas who gave a presentation about the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability initiative and its role in recording and communicating good welfare practices. Oranut Prangthong from the agro-food company CPF then gave a presentation about how animal welfare is integrated into their company strategy and practices. Kyoko Kusakabe then spoke about a social science perspective on fish welfare and why this is needed to help drive changes. Finaly Denise Gurshin from the Global Seafood Alliance spoke about how welfare was being introduced into theircertification schemes for feed mills, hatcheries, farms and processing plants. This session was wrapped up by Dave Little presenting on the concept of “One Welfare” and inviting broader discussion.
The afternoon sessions were based around group discussions and presentations, focusing on identifying potential improvement activities that could be implemented in Thai aquaculture value chains and developing actions plans and research concepts to support these.
Further details about the workshop, copies of the presentations and some video recordings are available on the Workshop page.