Current issues in fish welfare

Human beings may affect the welfare of fish through fisheries, aquaculture and a number of other activities. There is no agreement on just how to weigh the concern for welfare of fish against the human interests involved, but ethical frameworks exist that suggest how this might be approached. Different definitions of animal welfare focus on an animal's condition, on its subjective experience of that condition and/or on whether it can lead a natural life. These provide different, legitimate, perspectives, but the approach taken in this paper is to focus on welfare as the absence of suffering. An unresolved and controversial issue in discussions about animal welfare is whether non‐human animals exposed to adverse experiences such as physical injury or confinement experience what humans would call suffering. The neocortex, which in humans is an important part of the neural mechanism that generates the subjective experience of suffering, is lacking in fish and non‐mammalian animals, and it has been argued that its absence in fish indicates that fish cannot suffer. A strong alternative view, however, is that complex animals with sophisticated behaviour, such as fish, probably have the capacity for suffering, though this may be different in degree and kind from the human experience of this state. Recent empirical studies support this view and show that painful stimuli are, at least, strongly aversive to fish. Consequently, injury or experience of other harmful conditions is a cause for concern in terms of welfare of individual fish. There is also growing evidence that fish can experience fear‐like states and that they avoid situations in which they have experienced adverse conditions. Human activities that potentially compromise fish welfare include anthropogenic changes to the environment, commercial fisheries, recreational angling, aquaculture, ornamental fish keeping and scientific research. The resulting harm to fish welfare is a cost that must be minimized and weighed against the benefits of the activity concerned. Wild fish naturally experience a variety of adverse conditions, from attack by predators or conspecifics to starvation or exposure to poor environmental conditions. This does not make it acceptable for humans to impose such conditions on fish, but it does suggest that fish will have mechanisms to cope with these conditions and reminds us that pain responses are in some cases adaptive (for example, suppressing feeding when injured). In common with all vertebrates, fish respond to environmental challenges with a series of adaptive neuro‐endocrine adjustments that are collectively termed the stress response. These in turn induce reversible metabolic and behavioural changes that make the fish better able to overcome or avoid the challenge and are undoubtedly beneficial, in the short‐term at least. In contrast, prolonged activation of the stress response is damaging and leads to immuno‐suppression, reduced growth and reproductive dysfunction. Indicators associated with the response to chronic stress (physiological endpoints, disease status and behaviour) provide a potential source of information on the welfare status of a fish. The most reliable assessment of well‐being will be obtained by examining a range of informative measures and statistical techniques are available that enable several such measures to be combined objectively. A growing body of evidence tells us that many human activities can harm fish welfare, but that the effects depend on the species and life‐history stage concerned and are also context‐dependent. For example, in aquaculture, adverse effects related to stocking density may be eliminated if good water quality is maintained. At low densities, bad water quality may be less likely to arise whereas social interactions may cause greater welfare problems. A number of key differences between fish and birds and mammals have important implications for their welfare. Fish do not need to fuel a high body temperature, so the effects of food deprivation on welfare are not so marked. For species that live naturally in large shoals, low rather than high densities may be harmful. On the other hand, fish are in intimate contact with their environment through the huge surface area of their gills, so they are vulnerable to poor water quality and water borne pollutants. Extrapolation between taxa is dangerous and general frameworks for ensuring welfare in other vertebrate animals need to be modified before they can be usefully applied to fish. The scientific study of fish welfare is at an early stage compared with work on other vertebrates and a great deal of what we need to know is yet to be discovered. It is clearly the case that fish, though different from birds and mammals, however, are sophisticated animals, far removed from unfeeling creatures with a 15 s memory of popular misconception. A heightened appreciation of these points in those who exploit fish and in those who seek to protect them would go a long way towards improving fish welfare.     

Taking account of fish welfare: lessons from aquaculture

This paper explores the possibility that lessons learned from aquaculture might contribute to current debate on welfare and fisheries. After looking briefly at the history of research interest in the welfare of farmed fishes, some implications of using different definitions of and approaches to the concept of welfare are discussed. Consideration is given to the way in which the aquaculture industry has responded to public concern about fish welfare and, for cases where these responses have been effective, why this might be the case. Finally, possible cross‐over points between aquaculture and fisheries in the context of fish welfare, as well as experience and expertise that might be shared between these two areas, are identified.     

The welfare of fish

Our interactions with fish cover a wide range of activities including enjoying them as pets to consuming them as food. I propose that we confine the consideration of the welfare of fish to their physiology, and not join the discussion on whether fish can feel pain and suffering, as humans. A significant proportion of the papers on animal welfare center on whether non-human animals can feel pain, and suffer as humans. This is a question that never can be answered unequivocally. The premise of the present paper is that we have an ethical responsibility to respect the life and wellbeing of all organisms. Thus, we should concentrate on the behavioural, physiological, and cellular indicators of their well-being and attempt to minimize a state of stress in the animals that we have in our care or influence.     

Ethical considerations and animal welfare in ecological field studies

This paper addresses some of the ethical and welfare considerations implicit in the application of general techniques in common use during the course of collecting data in ecological field work. Even if they are not explicitly constructed as manipulative experiments, many field studies involve some degree of intervention during routine monitoring programmes: through disturbance caused merely by the presence of an observer or where specific sampling techniques themselves involve capture, handling and marking. Such interventive techniques may cause discomfort, distress or loss of fitness, even in the extreme may result in incidental mortality — and the ethical scientist should critically evaluate the implications of each methodology before adopting any procedure. The paper reviews by way of example the types of objective information now available for both small and larger mammals in relation to: (i) distress and mortality during capture operations; (ii) mortality or distress caused at the time by marking; (iii) longer-term consequences of handling and marking in terms of subsequent [delayed] mortality or loss of fitness, before considering a formal framework for assessment of costs and benefits of any given field programme.     

From applied ethics to empirical ethics to contextual ethics

Bioethics became applied ethics when it was assimilated to moral philosophy. Because deduction is the rationality of moral philosophy, subsuming facts under moral principles to deduce conclusions about what ought to be done became the prescribed reasoning of bioethics, and bioethics became a theory comprised of moral principles. Bioethicists now realize that applied ethics is too abstract and spare to apprehend the specificity, particularity, complexity and contingency of real moral issues. Empirical ethics and contextual ethics are needed to incorporate these features into morality, not just bioethics. The relevant facts and features of problems have to be identified, investigated and framed coherently, and potential resolutions have to be constructed and assessed. Moreover, these tasks are pursued and melded within manifold contexts, for example, families, work and health care systems, as well as societal, economic, legal and political backgrounds and encompassing worldviews. This naturalist orientation and both empirical ethics and contextual ethics require judgment, but how can judgment be rational? Rationality, fortunately, is more expansive than deductive reasoning. Judgment is rational when it emanates from a rational process of deliberation, and a process of deliberation is rational when it uses the resources of non‐formal reason: observation, creative construction, formal and informal reasoning methods and systematic critical assessment. Empirical ethics and contextual ethics recognize that finite, fallible human beings live in complex, dynamic, contingent worlds, and they foster creative, critical deliberation and employ non‐formal reason to make rational moral judgments.     

The role of ethics in the management of New Zealand's wild mammals

Abstract

Wild deer are used to illustrate the conflicts that arise when an animal is both a pest and a valued resource. At present there are c. 250 000 wild deer in New Zealand. These are pursued by c. 37 000 hunters who spend more than $20 million annually to harvest c. 70 000 deer. Nearly two-thirds of the harvest is taken by recreational hunters; the remainder forms the basis of a small industry for venison export. Despite their recreational and commercial value, wild deer continue to be a significant conservation pest. Conservationists generally would like wild deer to be eradicated, or, failing that, their densities held at the lowest levels possible with the control resources available. Hunters, however, would like deer to remain, and at higher rather than lower densities, to provide better prospects for hunting success. We discuss ways in which these apparently incompatible aspirations can be partially reconciled.     

Evolutionary ethics,Darwinian ethics and ethical naturalism

The relevance of evolutionary theory to ethics goes back to Darwin but until recently discussion employed evolutionary theory to justify ethical, social and political positions. Recently, evolutionary theory has been used to explain the existence of moral systems and moral propensities and, thereby, to provide a naturalistic basis for ethics. I argue that this approach has advanced our understanding of the basis of moral systems and moral propensities but does not as yet adequately incorporate the role of cognition in its account. Cognition has the effect of decoupling to some extent — though, of course, far from fully — human moral systems from their evolutionary origins. In an adequate account, evolutionary theory will play a crucial role but so also will our evolved cognitive abilities.     

Review: Assessing fish welfare in research and aquaculture,with a focus on European directives

The number of farmed fish in the world has increased considerably. Aquaculture is a growing industry that will in the future provide a large portion of fishery products. Moreover, in recent years, the number of teleost fish used as animal models for scientific research in both biomedical and ecological fields has increased. Therefore, it is increasingly important to implement measures designed to enhance the welfare of these animals. Currently, a number of European rules exist as requirements for the establishment, care and accommodation of fish maintained for human purposes. As far as (teleost) fish are concerned, the fact that the number of extant species is much greater than that of all other vertebrates must be considered. Of further importance is that each species has its own specific physical and chemical requirements. These factors make it difficult to provide generalized recommendations or requirements for all fish species. An adequate knowledge is required of the physiology and ecology of each species bred. This paper integrates and discusses, in a single synthesis, the current issues related to fish welfare, considering that teleosts are target species for both aquaculture and experimental models in biological and biomedical research. We first focus on the practical aspects, which must be considered when assessing fish welfare in both research and aquaculture contexts. Next, we address husbandry and the care of fish housed in research laboratories and aquaculture facilities in relation to their physiological and behavioural requirements, as well as in reference to the suggestions provided by European regulations. Finally, to evaluate precisely which parameters described by Directive 2010/63/EU are reported in scientific papers, we analysed 82 articles published by European researchers in 2014 and 2015. This review found that there is a general lack of information related to the optimal environmental conditions that should be provided for the range of species covered by this directive.     

The ethics of biofuels

The rapid development and adoption of biofuels has been driven by a wide range of targets and other policy instruments, but first‐generation biofuels have been widely criticized. In light of the development of new biofuel technologies that aim to avoid the problems of the past, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics conducted an 18‐month inquiry on the ethical, social and policy issues raised by both current and future biofuels. The Council concludes that many biofuels policies fail to take consideration of important ethical principles, such as protecting human rights, environmental sustainability, climate change mitigation, just reward, and equitable distribution of costs and benefits. It proposes an overarching ethical standard for biofuels, enforced by a certification scheme for all biofuels produced in and imported into Europe and ideally worldwide.     

Refining the ethics of preimplantation genetic diagnosis: A plea for contextualized proportionality

Many European countries uphold a ‘high risk of a serious condition’ requirement for limiting the scope of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). This ‘front door’ rule should be loosened to account for forms of PGD with a divergent proportionality. This applies to both ‘added PGD’ (aPGD), as an add‐on to in vitro fertilization (IVF), and ‘combination PGD’ (cPGD), for a secondary disorder in addition to the one for which the applicants have an accepted PGD indication. Thus loosening up at the front has implications at the back of PGD treatment, where a further PGD rule says that ‘affected embryos’ (in the sense of embryos with the targeted mutation or abnormality) should not be transferred to the womb. This ‘back door’ rule should be loosened to allow for transferring ‘last chance’ affected embryos in aPGD and cPGD cases, provided this does not entail a high risk that the child will have a seriously diminished quality of life.     

树鼩的动物福利措施探讨

树鼩在生物学特性、生理生化、新陈代谢和基因组等方面近似于人类,被广泛应用于生理学、病理学、病毒学、免疫学、药理学及遗传学等多个领域。迄今为止用于生物医学研究的树鼩大部分来自野生,实验树鼩尚无国家质量控制标准。为了保证树鼩引种、驯化、饲养、繁殖、质量控制及福利的规范化和科学化,提高树鼩繁殖率和成活率,本文从兽医公共卫生及实验动物科学的角度,对野生树鼩的捕捉、运输、检疫、饲养及繁育等方面的基本原则及技术操作和福利要求作一简述,为从事树鼩工作的有关人员及树鼩实验动物化研究提供参考。     

Barriers and challenges in clinical ethics consultations: the experiences of nine clinical ethics committees

Clinical ethics committees have recently been established in nearly all Norwegian hospital trusts. One important task for these committees is clinical ethics consultations. This qualitative study explores significant barriers confronting the ethics committees in providing such consultation services. The interviews with the committees indicate that there is a substantial need for clinical ethics support services and, in general, the committee members expressed a great deal of enthusiasm for the committee work. They also reported, however, that tendencies to evade moral disagreement, conflict, and 'outsiders' are common in the hospitals. Sometimes even the committees comply with some of these tendencies. The committees agree that there is a need to improve their routines and procedures, clarify the committees' profile and field of responsibility, to make the committees well-known, to secure adequate operating conditions, and to develop organizational integration and support. Various strategies to meet these challenges on a local, regional or national level are also explored in this paper.     

The ethics of public policy RCTs: The principle of policy equipoise

In this article, I ask whether a principle analogous to the principle of clinical equipoise should govern the design and conduct of RCTs evaluating the effectiveness of policy interventions. I answer this question affirmatively, and introduce and defend the principle of policy equipoise. According to this principle, all arms of a policy RCT must be, at minimum, in a state of equipoise with the best proven policy that is also morally and practically attainable and sustainable. For all arms of a policy RCT, policy experts must either (1) reasonably disagree about whether the trial arms are more effective than this policy, or (2) know that they are.     

A moderate Buddhist animal research ethics

Though there is a burgeoning interest in applied Buddhist ethics, Buddhist animal research ethics remains an underdeveloped area. In this paper I will explore how some central Buddhist ethical considerations can usefully engage our use of other animals (henceforth, animals) in science. As the scientific use of animals is broad, I will narrow my focus to laboratory science. I will show that, though a Buddhist abolitionism would not be unmotivated, it is possible to reject it. While doing so, it will be important to resist emphasizing elements of Buddhist thought that merely provide reasons to adopt the dominant ethical framework governing laboratory animal research ethics, known as the 3Rs. Though I will suggest how a Buddhist animal research ethics can sometimes permit the use of animals in harmful research, it will also require ethical constraints that resonate with some of the more progressive elements in ‘Western’ bioethics.     

The roots of ethics: an anthropological approach

The roots of ethics are to be found within man's freedom and his ability to pursue values from the choices he makes. These values may be sought within the structure of the human being. Some of these values will correspond to man's vital needs (such as socializing, cooperation, family ties, etc.), yet they are not to be interpreted as being genetically determined, since they are consciously interiorized and experienced and planned at both individual and group level. Other values, such as religion, a moral sense, or art transcend those needs strictly linked with physical life. These values may be considered to be “natural universals” or ‘trans-cultural” values because they are to be found in various cultures. The fact that they offer man an advantage, does not necessarily mean that they are genetically determined or that they have been fixed through selection processes. These can be extended to include the values that have matured from the historical experience of single human beings and groups. The transcendental value of the person-man as opposed to infra-human beings, has also been confirmed as a priority criterion for value judgements and for a rational ethics, particularly within the field of bio-ethics.