ASC seeks to bridge science-to-farming gap in furthering shrimp welfare
The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) is launching a new applied research project to strengthen the scientific evidence and practical tools available to improve the welfare of farmed shrimp at slaughter.
The ASC Responsible Shrimp Slaughter Project, supported by philanthropic funder and advisor Coefficient Giving, will bring together scientific research, producer experience, and wider industry expertise to address what the ASC says are critical evidence gaps and translate emerging knowledge into approaches that can work under commercial farming conditions.
The project builds on earlier discussions around a proposed Responsible Shrimp Slaughter Coalition. While the coalition was never formally established, the need it identified for coordinated research and practical guidance for the shrimp sector has only become more relevant, said the ASC.
Taking a broader and more applied approach, ASC will consolidate existing scientific knowledge, coordinate targeted research and field trials, and translate the findings into tools producers can use in commercial settings.
Practical guidance
The project aims to develop:
validated parameters for effective stunning and slaughter;
verifiable indicators that can be used on farms to assess whether stunning and slaughter methods are effective;
guidance to support the development of Standard Operating Procedures for responsible shrimp slaughter.
The initiative comes at a time of growing attention to shrimp welfare across the seafood supply chain.
ASC said it will engage producers, retailers, processors, academia, and other relevant stakeholders throughout the project, helping ensure that research and potential solutions reflect different production and supply chain realities.
Stronger understanding
Maria Filipa Castanheira, ASC standards manager – health and welfare, said: “Research is giving us a much stronger understanding of what may constitute effective stunning and slaughter, but there is a critical step between demonstrating that an approach can work in a laboratory and understanding how it can be applied, monitored, and verified reliably under commercial conditions.
“This project is about bridging that gap. By combining independent science and field research with the practical experience of producers and the wider supply chain, we want to build a stronger evidence base and develop tools that producers can actually use.”
A growing evidence base
Research from the Institute of Aquaculture at Stirling University in Scotland is contributing to scientific understanding of shrimp welfare at slaughter, including laboratory-based work examining electrical stunning and methods for assessing insensibility. ASC said that while this has provided valuable evidence, further work is needed to understand how approaches can be applied and verified under commercial farm conditions.
A recent systematic review by researchers at Normandie Université, Université Rennes, and animal welfare consultancy Bankiva also highlighted significant evidence gaps. Examining three decades of scientific literature, the authors identified only a handful of primary experimental studies specifically addressing whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) and concluded that the current evidence is not yet sufficient to determine whether existing stunning and slaughter methods can be considered humane.
Greater consensus
Castanheira said: “No single study will answer every question, and solutions need to reflect the realities of shrimp production around the world. By bringing different parts of the sector into this work, we have an opportunity to build greater scientific consensus and give producers clearer, evidence-based guidance they can apply in practice.”
ASC said the project reflects its broader commitment to strengthening animal health and welfare within aquaculture through science-based requirements and continuous improvement.
