Fish health is central to farming, yet assessments are mostly indirect through detection of pathogen presence, environmental conditions, and performance indicators such as growth, feed intake, and mortality. Such data tells the farmer what has already happened and lack direct input from the farmed animals.
Blood biochemistry changes that. It is a key prognostic tool in human medicine and a cornerstone of veterinary health management. It is routinely used to provide direct insight into organ function, metabolic status, disease, and treatment response. The same approach can be applied for routine fish health monitoring because it provides direct physiological insight into how fish respond to their environment and challenges associated with it.
Over the past decade, WellFish Tech has developed, piloted, and commercially validated, blood biochemistry and modelling as routine tools for on-farm fish health assessment tools. Case studies and commercial examples have demonstrated the value of the tools in three areas: continuous health monitoring, mortality forecasting and health modelling. The outputs of the forecast and models support informed decision-making, helping optimize farm management, reduce losses, and improve financial performance. More importantly, these outputs shift the health management framework from reactive to proactive and provide a glimpse into the future state of the animals and opportunity to intervene before losses occur.
This presentation will demonstrate how blood biochemistry works at a farm level and what health modelling and mortality forecasting mean for farm management and animal welfare.