Health monitoring, disease, and clinical pathology

The health monitoring of zebrafish aims at preserving fish welfare, scientific data, and personnel health. The program should include daily recording of morbidity and mortality, monitoring of breeding and rearing performances, and screening of environment, colony fish, and prefiltration sentinels for Mycobacterium spp., Pseudoloma neurophilia, Pseudocapillaria tomentosa, and other relevant pathogens in the facility context. The definition of a specific pathogen-free status of an epidemiological unit depends on the prevalence set to determine the number of samples, and on the reliability of the barriers preserving the epidemiological unit's health status. This biosecurity program starts with bio-containing imported fish in quarantine, and triaging imports to avoid introduction of excluded pathogens. Biosecurity barriers also prevent contamination from any introduced goods and personnel, and from other epidemiological units in the facility, which is particularly relevant in multispecies set-ups.