Introduction
In 2024 over 100 million Atlantic salmon over 3 grams died in hatcheries and fish farms in N orway. Diseases and parasites are the main root causes, with t he most common cause of death being infectious diseases. At the same time, Norwegian aquaculture is largely regulated based on the production of sea lice and how it affects wild salmon. Recently, the authorities put forward a white paper presenting their vision for future regulation of the industry (Meld. St. 24 (2024–2025)) – still largely based on sea lice numbers . Even though it is early to say how this will turn out and ultimately affect the industry, it is reasonable to expect significant changes to production strategies and prevalence of new production systems .
Changes to production strategies and use of production systems following Meld. St. 24 (2024–2025) will potentially affect biosafety. One central consideration is how vessel activities and operations at fish farms are adapted to new regulatory conditions and use of new technology.
Material and methods
This study investigates how changes to production strategies and production systems for marine farming of Atlantic salmon can affect the biosafety in the industry. The approach is two-folded; i ) cases for future scenarios are described and discussed in expert panels , this covers exploring how the industry might look in 20 years and what this means for biosafety , ii) detailed choices for production strategies and production forms are listed and the literature is reviewed for knowledge on the effects of the choices on biosafety, and for possible measures for improvement.
Results
The study is not yet fully completed, however some preliminary results and details on the structure of the study are available. Case studies are divided into segments for land-based facilities , sea-based facilities and transportation. Choices for production strategies and production forms are further divided into five segments; broodstock, hatcheries, grow-out, slaughter and transport. This is necessary due to the magnitude of choices that can be made from selecting water temperature, geographical placement of facilities, to operations routines and use of stun and bleed vessels .
Extensive literature on risks and measures exists for some choices and alternatives, but there is also a number of choices for which no relevant literature has been identified. This might indicate knowledge gaps with respect to how decision making in aquaculture can affect biosafety. The resulting overview can therefore help guide decision makers in terms of informing them about the risk/consequences related to choices they make.
Further results will be finalized in time for the presentation at Aquaculture Europe 2025.