Acronym ENRICH Fish
Category
Aquaculture
Title Using optimised environmental enrichment to improve the rearing conditions and welfare of Atlantic salmon in relation to the 3Rs Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator Chris Noble Coordinator email chris.noble@nofima.no
Coordinator institution
NOFIMA - Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research (Norway)
Institutions involved
IMR - Institute of Marine Research (Norway) ,
NA - Norecopa (Norway) ,
Start year 2015 End year 2017 Funding (€) € 842,105 Website https://norecopa.no/fish/projects/enrich-fish Summary The overall vision of ENRICH Fish is to pursue and deliver the goals of the 3Rs (Refinement, Reduction and Replacement) with regard to the use of live fish in all Norwegian scientific procedures. The 3Rs framework suggests scientific experiments should i) refine their designs and approaches to improve animal welfare, ii) reduce the number of animals used and iii) where possible, replace live animals with viable alternatives. In 2011, fish accounted for 97% of all live animals used in Norwegian research and this equated to 1,578,589 fish out of a total of 1,622,714 animals used. 80% of these fish were from a single species, Atlantic salmon. Salmon also dominates Norwegian aquaculture production, with over 1.2 million tonnes produced in 2013 and the project will therefore focus on Atlantic salmon. The ENRICH Fish project aims to address and implement the 3Rs in all fundamental and applied fish procedures by using Environmental Enrichment (EE) to enhance i) the physical and ii) the social rearing environment of fish and bring daily husbandry and rearing practices closer to the species-specific physiological and behavioural needs of fish. This can be beneficial for overall data quality as poor welfare can increase variability and have an adverse effect upon the validity and quality of the data produced. EE is widely used in a diverse range of animal taxa and is increasingly used in fish rearing. It can improve welfare, survival, recovery from stressors and reduce aggression and anxiety in reared animals. ENRICH Fish will create a multi-stakeholder platform to ensure project goals and objectives are realised and efficiently distributed to relevant stakeholders. Its outputs can be used to develop a program for promoting and implementing the goals of the 3Rs in fundamental and applied fish research, one of the most widely used fish species in Norwegian R&D and aquaculture production.
Keywords
Fish;
Animal welfare;
Salmon;
Marine Region
76
Not associated to marine areas
0
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