Editorial: Animal welfare, Volume I: Animal welfare in aquaculture - Physiological basis and recent findings

Abstract

Since animal welfare is a multidisciplinary scientific discipline, the papers published in this special issue are based on diverse subjects, such as feeding and nutrition, behavior, immunology, reproduction, pathology, endocrinology, and neuroendocrinology. The studies targeting fish species have been the most frequent, being salmonids the main group. Nevertheless, only one out of the thirteen published articles deals with an invertebrate species, the lobster (Homarus americanus), which highlights the recent interest for crustaceans’ welfare. The results derived from these works state objectively the importance of animal welfare in both physiological and behavioral traits and responses, as well as in zootechnical parameters of interest for farmers.