Microsporidiosis in Zebrafish Research Facilities

Sanders, Justin L.; Watral, Virginia; Kent, Michael L.

doi:10.1093/ilar.53.2.106

Cited by 62 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…23 It is likely that measures used to prevent or control infection for P. neurophilia will also be effective for Pleistophora hyphessobryconis. 23,24 Mycobacteriosis is the most widely distributed and second most prevalent infectious disease of laboratory zebrafish. There are more than 170 recognized Mycobacterium spp., including both infectious and noninfectious environmental species, which may be found in zebrafish systems and have the potential to cause disease in fish and/or human handlers.…”

Section: Choice Of Agentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recommendations for Health Monitoring and Reporting for Zebrafish Research Facilities

2016

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The presence of subclinical infection or clinical disease in laboratory zebrafish may have a significant impact on research results, animal health and welfare, and transfer of animals between institutions. As use of zebrafish as a model of disease increases, a harmonized method for monitoring and reporting the health status of animals will facilitate the transfer of animals, allow institutions to exclude diseases that may negatively impact their research programs, and improve animal health and welfare. All zebrafish facilities should implement a health monitoring program. In this study, we review important aspects of a health monitoring program, including choice of agents, samples for testing, available testing methodologies, housing and husbandry, cost, test subjects, and a harmonized method for reporting results. Facilities may use these recommendations to implement their own health monitoring program.

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Section: Choice Of Agentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recommendations for Health Monitoring and Reporting for Zebrafish Research Facilities

2016

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“…9,[18][19][20][21][22][23] As the national resource center, the CZRC values the health monitoring and fish disease diagnoses as one of the most important daily work.…”

Section: Health-related Programs At Czrcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Zebrafish Health Conditions in the China Zebrafish Resource Center and 20 Major Chinese Zebrafish Laboratories

Liu

Pan

et al. 2016

Zebrafish

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In China, the use of zebrafish as an experimental animal in the past 15 years has widely expanded. The China Zebrafish Resource Center (CZRC), which was established in 2012, is becoming one of the major resource centers in the global zebrafish community. Large-scale use and regular exchange of zebrafish resources have put forward higher requirements on zebrafish health issues in China. This article reports the current aquatic infrastructure design, animal husbandry, and health-monitoring programs in the CZRC. Meanwhile, through a survey of 20 Chinese zebrafish laboratories, we also describe the current health status of major zebrafish facilities in China. We conclude that it is of great importance to establish a widely accepted health standard and health-monitoring strategy in the Chinese zebrafish research community. Introduction In China, zebrafish-related research started in the early 1990s, and the research community has been rapidly growing since 2000. From 2000 to 2014, the zebrafish-related research outputs have increased more than 50 times in China, while the proportion of zebrafish-related articles published by Chinese investigators in the total articles published worldwide has increased from 1.5% to 16.8%. 1,2To meet the growing needs of zebrafish strains and zebrafish technical services, the China Zebrafish Resource Center (CZRC) was established at the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan, in October 2012. Till late 2015, the CZRC has maintained more than 900 lines of wild-type, mutant, and transgenic zebrafish lines and a number of DNA plasmids and cell lines.In 2013, 40 Chinese zebrafish laboratories started the Zebrafish All Gene Knockout Project for chromosome 1 (ZKO Project). The project planned to knock out more than 1000 genes on zebrafish chromosome 1 using the CRISPR/Cas9 technique. As the project coordinator, the CZRC is in charge of the preservation and distribution of all the knockout lines built in the project, and this enables the CZRC to know the status of zebrafish facilities in the major Chinese zebrafish laboratories.In this article, we introduce the aquatic infrastructure design, daily management, fish husbandry, and the healthmonitoring programs in CZRC, and the current health status of 20 zebrafish facilities in China. Materials and Methods Equipments used in fish facilityThe CZRC is equipped with two water purification systems (ESEN-AW-JH), provided by the Beijing Enviromental Science company. The main fish room is equipped with six independent sets of recirculating aquatic system, in which five sets (ESEN-AW-RC12) were provided by Beijing ESEN, and one set (WCFE6/8/12, ZC-D5) was provided by Shanghai Hai Sheng Biotech company. The quarantine room is equipped with four independent flow-through systems (ESEN-AW-DU5SS), which were provided by Beijing ESEN. The nursery room is equipped with three recirculating racks, in which two racks (ESEN-AW-DU5SS) were provided by Beijing ESEN and one rack (Z-A-S5) was provided by Shanghai Hai Sheng. The food p...

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“…3,7 As P. neurophilia has only been described from one fish species since its initial report in 1980, it may be assumed that this parasite has very narrow host specificity. However, the observation of P. neurophilia infecting a moribund Betta splendens that was cohabitating with zebrafish in a personal home aquarium for several months led us to realize that this assumption was incorrect, and thus, we were interested in investigating the ability of this parasite to infect other laboratory fishes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expansion of the Known Host Range of the Microsporidium, Pseudoloma neurophilia

et al. 2016

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The microsporidium, Pseudoloma neurophilia, is the most common infectious organism found in laboratory zebrafish colonies. Many currently used zebrafish lines originally came from pet store fish, and the initial description of P. neurophilia came from zebrafish obtained from a retail pet store. However, as P. neurophilia has not been described from wild-caught zebrafish, whether P. neurophilia is a natural pathogen of zebrafish is an open question. The pooling of fish of different species in the aquarium fish trade is common and a generalist parasite could be transmitted to novel hosts in this scenario. We determined that P. neurophilia can infect seven species of fishes from five families by cohabitation with infected zebrafish: Betta splendens, Xiphophorus maculatus, Devario aequipinnatus, Pimephales promelas, Oryzias latipes, Carassius auratus and Paracheirodon innesi. Infections in these fishes were histologically similar to those of zebrafish. We include a case report of a laboratory population of fathead minnows with naturally acquired P. neurophilia infections. With such a broad host range, including several fish families, other laboratory fishes should be screened routinely for this and other microsporidian parasites.

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Microsporidiosis in Zebrafish Research Facilities

Cited by 62 publications

References 24 publications

Recommendations for Health Monitoring and Reporting for Zebrafish Research Facilities

Recommendations for Health Monitoring and Reporting for Zebrafish Research Facilities

Zebrafish Health Conditions in the China Zebrafish Resource Center and 20 Major Chinese Zebrafish Laboratories

Expansion of the Known Host Range of the Microsporidium, Pseudoloma neurophilia

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