Implementation of the European perch (Perca fluviatilis) into MyFishCheck

Fish welfare within aquaculture suffers from the fact that regulations and legal requirements for animal welfare primarily apply to terrestrial animal husbandry. However, fish welfare plays a major role in fish husbandry, and it has been increasingly recognized since the early 2000's that fish can feel pain and need to be protected by law. In order to grant certain standards of welfare in husbandry the ability to measure and monitor welfare is key. For this, fish farmers need assistance and tools that are practicable and can be incorporated into their daily routines. MyFishCheck is such a tool and was developed by the Aquaculture Systems Research Group at the ZHAW in Wädenswil to support fish farmers in monitoring fish welfare. MyFishCheck is a model based on the scoring of different parameters, which are decisive for fish welfare, to assess the current welfare status of fish. The corresponding app facilitates the assessment for fish farms as they can enter the data and analyse the results digitally. The app is built in a modular way to ensure that more fish species, languages, or parameters can be added. This thesis had two goals, first, the implementation of the European perch (Perca fluviatilis) into the model and the app, and second, the development of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on how such a species implementation is to be carried out. A complete implementation of the European perch into MyFishCheck was successfully carried out and its individual steps were documented. The parameters and their weighings within MyFishCheck were adapted to the needs of the European perch and justified based on a comprehensive literature search. A userfriendly SOP was created to facilitate future implementations of additional fish species in a standardised way, allowing for the continuous increase of the use and range of MyFishCheck.