Health and Welfare Management Plan (HWMP) Consulting

Your HWMP must include at least the following:

• a site-specific disease monitoring, response and reporting mechanisms

• a site-specific biosecurity mechanism, including risk pathways into/out of and within the farm, to identify and minimize spreading of disease

• a list of potential predators and any predator control measures needed

• the HWMP is overseen and signed-off by a veterinarian

• a review and where needed a revision of the HWMP when changes in farming activities or changes in external factors occur, following each production cycle, or upon the direction of the veterinarian

Your HWMP must include a water quality monitoring process that defines:

• Monitoring frequency for parameters like temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and more*

• Species-specific limits for water quality parameters*

• Procedures for measuring and recording results* 

* ASC specifies minimum parameters, monitoring frequencies and requirements that must be included in this water quality monitoring process which differ by species and production. This includes a number of parameters that must be monitored daily.

Your HWMP must include a monitoring process for morphological scoring, including assessing at least once a month: 

• Eye damage

• Operculum damage

• Skin damage

• Fin damage

• Deformities

• Change of coloration

• Emaciation

Your HWMP must include a monitoring process for behavioural scoring, including assessing behavioural scoring parameters daily. 

Your HWMP must include a monitoring process for mortality, including: 

• Daily mortality monitoring

• Classification of all recovered mortalities

• Post-mortem analysis for mortality events

• Investigation of unexplained mortality events

Your HWMP must set out a traffic light system for water quality, morphological scoring, behavioral scoring, and mortality, where:

• Green: Acceptable levels: Normal operation

• Amber: Warning levels: Increased monitoring and short-term corrective measures

• Red: Unacceptable levels: Immediate action and corrective measures required

Your HWMP must include a mechanism to analyze data over time to identify declining or improving health/welfare trends and their drivers based on:

• Water quality monitoring outcomes

• Morphological scoring results

• Behavioral observations

• Mortality data, classification, and post-mortem analyses

• Processing plant feedback

Development of a mortality reduction program and welfare improvement measures, including:

• Long-term animal health and welfare improvement strategies

• Short-term mitigation measures for declining health/welfare

• Defined annual targets for reduction in total and unexplained mortality

• Consideration of stocking density adjustments, feeding system modifications, water quality improvements, handling, modification of enclosure characteristics,  environmental enrichment