title: Evaluating and Optimizing Fish Health and Welfare During Experimental Procedures.
abstract: Many facilities house fish in separate static containers post-procedure, for example, while awaiting genotyping results. This ensures fish can be easily identified, but it does not allow for provision of continuous filtered water or diet. At the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, concern over the housing conditions led to the development of an individual housing system (GeneS) enabling feeding and water filtration. Trials to compare the water quality measures between the various systems found that fish housed in static containers experienced rapid deterioration in water quality. By day 1, measures of ammonia were outside the Institute's prescribed values and continued to rise until it was 25-fold higher than recommended levels. Nitrite levels were also outside recommended levels for all fish by day 9 and were twofold higher by the end of the trial. The water quality measures for tanks held on the recirculating system were stable even though food was provided. These results indicate that for housing zebrafish, running water or appropriately timed water changes are a critical component to ensure that the ethical obligations are met.
authors.affiliation: 1 Research Support Facility, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute , Cambridge, United Kingdom .|2 Department of Medicine, MRC-LMB, Cambridge University , Cambridge, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Goodwin
authors.affiliation: 1 Research Support Facility, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute , Cambridge, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: Lynda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Westall
authors.affiliation: 3 Mouse Informatics Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute , Cambridge, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: Natasha A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Karp
authors.affiliation: 1 Research Support Facility, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute , Cambridge, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hazlehurst
authors.affiliation: 1 Research Support Facility, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute , Cambridge, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: Ceri
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kovacs
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Medicine, MRC-LMB, Cambridge University , Cambridge, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: Rosemary
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Keeble
authors.affiliation: 1 Research Support Facility, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute , Cambridge, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: 1 Research Support Facility, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute , Cambridge, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.affiliation: 1 Research Support Facility, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute , Cambridge, United Kingdom .
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bussell
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000379:methods; D000827:Animal Welfare; D000818:Animals; D017756:Aquaculture / Q000379:methods*; D060753:Water Quality; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000502:physiology*