EURCAW Aqua is one of four animal welfare reference centres founded by the EU since 2018.
EURCAW Aqua, the European Reference Centre for Animal Welfare for Aquatic Animals, has launched a new web portal providing information and resources on the welfare of fish and other farmed aquatic species.
Focusing on the welfare of fish, cephalopods and decapods, with priority given to farmed aquatic species of economic significance for European aquaculture, the new website is intended to act as an information and resources hub to disseminate good practices.
EURCAW-Aqua Director Dr Michael Pavlidis, who is also Professor of Marine Biology and Physiology at the University of Crete, said that the new web portal is intended to support knowledge-sharing and enable "well-informed and compassionate" decision-making on health and welfare in aquaculture.
To that end, the portal will include information on animal welfare indicators, welfare assessment methods, and tools to improve welfare of difference species.
EURCAW Aqua was formally created in January 2024, the fourth of a series of animal welfare reference centres founded in the bloc since 2018, and operated by a consortium led by the University of Crete (Greece), together with the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Parasitology (Czechia) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain).
The Centre is designed to support the activities of the European Commission and EU member states regarding aquatic animal welfare by carrying out scientific and technical studies, organising training courses and disseminating research results and information on technical innovations.
The EURCAW-Aqua web portal can be accessed here.