Anaesthesia of laboratory, aquaculture and ornamental fish: Proceedings of the first LASA-FVS Symposium.

Following on from the Annual Fish Veterinary Society Conference, this symposium was organised with the Laboratory Animal Science Association and brought together experts from ornamental (pond and aquarium) fish practice, aquaculture and aquatic-research facilities to discuss good practice of anaesthesia. This proceedings paper gives an overview of relevant experiences involving a range of immersion drugs including tricaine, benzocaine and isoeugenol, as well as a summary of the main topics of discussion. While fish anaesthesia is commonplace, administration methods, drugs and monitoring procedures may often be regarded as antiquated when compared with mammalian practice.

Species specific anaesthetics for fish anaesthesia and euthanasia.

There is a need to ensure that the care and welfare for fish maintained in the laboratory are to the highest standards. This extends to the use of anaesthetics for both scientific study, humane killing and euthanasia at end of life. An anaesthetic should not induce negative behaviours and fish should not seek to avoid the anaesthetic.

A Good Death? Report of the Second Newcastle Meeting on Laboratory Animal Euthanasia.

Millions of laboratory animals are killed each year worldwide. There is an ethical, and in many countries also a legal, imperative to ensure those deaths cause minimal suffering. However, there is a lack of consensus regarding what methods of killing are humane for many species and stages of development.

Do fish perceive anaesthetics as aversive?

This study addresses a fundamental question in fish welfare: are the anaesthetics used for fish aversive? Despite years of routine general use of many agents, within both scientific research and aquaculture, there is a paucity of information regarding their tolerance and associated behavioural responses by fish. This study examined nine of the most commonly used fish anaesthetic agents, and performed preference tests using adult mixed sex zebrafish (Danio rerio), the most commonly held laboratory fish. Video tracking software quantified swimming behaviour related to aversion for each anaesthetic at 50% of its standard recommended dose compared with clean water in a flow-through chemotaxic choice chamber.