实验用鱼类的水环境及其标准化

由于近年实验用鱼作为新兴模式动物在国内外生命科技界发展迅速,因此实验用鱼的标准化特别是对其水环境的标准化已经成为实验用鱼类研究发展的必然趋势。本文分析和综述了实验用鱼类所需的水源及供水要求、水质和水环境的技术指标特点和对鱼类的影响,以期为斑马鱼、剑尾鱼等水生动物的实验动物化研究提供必要的资料。     

动物福利在研究生实验动物学教学中的应用初探

在医学研究中,实验动物具有不可替代的地位和作用,越来越多的人开始关心动物福利。各医学院校是培养未来科研工作者的机构,实验动物在医学院校的使用量非常大,因此,在课堂教学中,培养医学生树立保护动物福利的观念具有重要意义。本文从课堂教育、实验动物处理、3R原则的实施等方面探讨了如何在教学过程中开展动物福利教育。     

实验动物福利与动物实验伦理审查国内外进展

介绍实验动物福利与动物实验伦理审查国内外进展情况。实验动物为生命科学发展和人类健康做出了重大贡献。随着社会进步和人类文明程度不断提高,善待实验动物既是人类文明道德的体现,也是人与自然和谐发展的需要。把握实验动物福利原则、遵循实验动物福利法规、严格履行动物实验伦理审查制度是切实保障实验动物福利的有效途径。虽然经过近30年的发展,我国在实验动物福利、动物实验伦理审查等方面的管理逐步走向法制化和规范化,探索出关于动物福利和实验动物伦理方面的多种教学模式,但与国际上高水平的动物福利监管相比,仍有欠缺,有待继续发展完善。     

我国实验动物福利发展战略与十二五生命科技发展需求及对策的探讨

实验动物福利越来越受到社会各方面的重视.欧美等发达国家已经建立起了一套比较完善的实验动物福利法规体系,而我国还没有专门的实验动物福利立法,与国外发达国家相比存在较大差距,但是不断出现的与实验动物福利有关的经贸技术壁垒以及十二五发展的需要使得实验动物福利成为我国目前亟待解决的战略问题.     

北京积水潭医院投入使用欧标模式大动物笼舍

正随着实验动物科学的快速发展,"好的实验动物福利=好的科学研究结果"已经是国际科学界的共识。通过"中英实验动物福利国际论坛"学习诺和诺德中国区北京大动物实验室先进的饲养管理经验,北京市创伤骨科研究所对大动物饲养间按照欧洲标准进行了改建。现已通过验收,并于2016年5月迎来第一批比格实验用犬入住。     

实验动物福利与“3R”原则

实验动物的广泛应用是人们对实验动物福利越来越重视,实验动物福利不仅是对动物本身的保护,更重要的是对动物试验结果的保证。“3R”原则是动物福利的一种具体反应和实施方法,本文详细论述了实验动物福利和“3R”原则的由来,内容涉及国内外的发展概况,其目的是借鉴国外的一些经验和教训,促进我国实验动物科技的发展,使实验动物更好的为科学技术和经济建设服务。     

鱼类社群等级及其在水产增养殖中的应用

社群等级是鱼类行为生态学研究的重要内容。鱼类社群等级是指社会性鱼类通过种内竞争在群体内形成的具有一定顺序的等级序列,会对其生理和行为产生重要影响。在鱼类育苗和养殖过程中,社群等级可能导致攻击行为增加、生理压力增大、生长离散加剧,对鱼类福利产生不利影响。本文综述了近年来国内外有关鱼类社群等级及其影响因素的研究概况,指出鱼类社群等级主要受基因、个性、代谢、个体大小、社群经验等自身条件以及群体密度、饵料丰度、隐蔽物等环境因素的影响。同时,介绍了鱼类社群等级的实验设计与判别方法,探讨了以往鱼类社群等级研究的不足,提出了社群等级研究的发展趋势以及今后应聚焦的研究内容。本文旨在为中国开展该领域研究提供借鉴,并为鱼类育苗、养殖生产中合理规避社群等级带来的不利影响,提高鱼类福利,优化增养殖技术提供科学依据。     

心房颤动模型中实验动物优化的研究进展

房颤动物模型的建立对于研究房颤的机制以及治疗方法有着极其重要的作用。而房颤医学模型需要较长时间才能获得,对实验动物有一定的特殊要求,并且影响较大。这样,实验动物优化,即实验动物福利的改良与发展就显得重要,是促进建模成功的重要保障。我们从伦理与法规支持,饲养管理,替代方法和福利技术四个方面综述心房颤动医学模型中实验动物福利的改良与发展。     

加强实验动物福利伦理的实施

动物实验是生命科学研究中必须采用的研究手段,对于生物医学、生物技术的发展起着非常重要的作用。但随着社会的发展,实验动物的福利及动物实验的伦理问题越来越引起人们的关注。重视实验动物的福利伦理是社会文明的体现,也是对用于人类健康研究的实验动物生命的尊重。2006年9月,科技部发布了《关于善待实验动物的指导性意见》,为落实意见的实施,我所进一步加强了实验动物福利伦理工作的开展。     

医药院校教学中应注重培养实验动物福利观念

在生命科学、医学和药学研究中，实验动物作为直接的实验材料和人类的替难者，具有不可替代的地位和作用。实验动物福利影响着实验动物的身心健康和动物实验的质量，进而影响到科学研究的科学性、可靠性和公众认可程度。各医药院校是培养未来医务人员、科研工作者的机构，在其教学中，都涉及到利用实验动物进行实际操作的训练学习，许多学科都与实验动物学科有着密不可分的内在联系。因此，在医药院校教学中，树立和培养医学生实验动物福利观念具有重要意义。     

Expanding the moral circle: farmed fish as objects of moral concern

Until recently fish welfare attracted little attention, but international and national legislation and standards of fish welfare are now emerging and an overview of these developments is presented in this study. Whereas animal welfare legislation is based on public morality, animal ethics does not automatically accept public morality as normative and elaborates arguments regarding the way humans should treat animals (referred to as moral standards). In this study we present the most common animal ethics theories. For most of these, sentience is considered a demarcation line for moral concern: if an animal is sentient, then it should be included in the moral circle, i.e. receive moral consideration in its own right and some basic welfare should be ensured. As for fish, research has revealed that the sensory system of teleosts can detect noxious stimuli, and that some kind of phenomenal consciousness, allowing the fish to feel pain, seems to be present. This raises the ethical question as to how much evidence we need in order to act on such indications of fish sentience. A simple risk analysis shows that the probability that fishes can feel pain is not negligible and that if they do indeed experience pain the consequences in terms of the number of suffering individuals are great. We conclude that farmed fish should be given the benefit of the doubt and we should make efforts that their welfare needs are met as well as possible. Finally, the way forward is briefly discussed: efforts must be made to understand what fish welfare means in practical fish farming. This will involve the development of research and education, greater accountability and transparency, compliance with and control of policies, and quality assurance schemes.     

Insights into the concept of fish welfare

Fish welfare issues are predicated on understanding whether fish are sentient beings. Therefore, we analyzed the logic of the methodologies used for studying this attribute. We conclude that empirical science is unable to prove or to disprove that fish are sentient beings. Thus, we propose a combined ethical-scientific approach for considering fish as sentient beings. The most difficult ongoing question is to determine which conditions fish prefer. Approaches to assess fish preferences should be rigorously and cautiously employed. In light of these considerations, attempts to establish physiological standards for fish welfare are discouraged, and a preference-based definition of fish welfare is proposed.     

Current issues in fish welfare

Human beings may affect the welfare of fish through fisheries, aquaculture and a number of other activities. There is no agreement on just how to weigh the concern for welfare of fish against the human interests involved, but ethical frameworks exist that suggest how this might be approached. Different definitions of animal welfare focus on an animal's condition, on its subjective experience of that condition and/or on whether it can lead a natural life. These provide different, legitimate, perspectives, but the approach taken in this paper is to focus on welfare as the absence of suffering. An unresolved and controversial issue in discussions about animal welfare is whether non‐human animals exposed to adverse experiences such as physical injury or confinement experience what humans would call suffering. The neocortex, which in humans is an important part of the neural mechanism that generates the subjective experience of suffering, is lacking in fish and non‐mammalian animals, and it has been argued that its absence in fish indicates that fish cannot suffer. A strong alternative view, however, is that complex animals with sophisticated behaviour, such as fish, probably have the capacity for suffering, though this may be different in degree and kind from the human experience of this state. Recent empirical studies support this view and show that painful stimuli are, at least, strongly aversive to fish. Consequently, injury or experience of other harmful conditions is a cause for concern in terms of welfare of individual fish. There is also growing evidence that fish can experience fear‐like states and that they avoid situations in which they have experienced adverse conditions. Human activities that potentially compromise fish welfare include anthropogenic changes to the environment, commercial fisheries, recreational angling, aquaculture, ornamental fish keeping and scientific research. The resulting harm to fish welfare is a cost that must be minimized and weighed against the benefits of the activity concerned. Wild fish naturally experience a variety of adverse conditions, from attack by predators or conspecifics to starvation or exposure to poor environmental conditions. This does not make it acceptable for humans to impose such conditions on fish, but it does suggest that fish will have mechanisms to cope with these conditions and reminds us that pain responses are in some cases adaptive (for example, suppressing feeding when injured). In common with all vertebrates, fish respond to environmental challenges with a series of adaptive neuro‐endocrine adjustments that are collectively termed the stress response. These in turn induce reversible metabolic and behavioural changes that make the fish better able to overcome or avoid the challenge and are undoubtedly beneficial, in the short‐term at least. In contrast, prolonged activation of the stress response is damaging and leads to immuno‐suppression, reduced growth and reproductive dysfunction. Indicators associated with the response to chronic stress (physiological endpoints, disease status and behaviour) provide a potential source of information on the welfare status of a fish. The most reliable assessment of well‐being will be obtained by examining a range of informative measures and statistical techniques are available that enable several such measures to be combined objectively. A growing body of evidence tells us that many human activities can harm fish welfare, but that the effects depend on the species and life‐history stage concerned and are also context‐dependent. For example, in aquaculture, adverse effects related to stocking density may be eliminated if good water quality is maintained. At low densities, bad water quality may be less likely to arise whereas social interactions may cause greater welfare problems. A number of key differences between fish and birds and mammals have important implications for their welfare. Fish do not need to fuel a high body temperature, so the effects of food deprivation on welfare are not so marked. For species that live naturally in large shoals, low rather than high densities may be harmful. On the other hand, fish are in intimate contact with their environment through the huge surface area of their gills, so they are vulnerable to poor water quality and water borne pollutants. Extrapolation between taxa is dangerous and general frameworks for ensuring welfare in other vertebrate animals need to be modified before they can be usefully applied to fish. The scientific study of fish welfare is at an early stage compared with work on other vertebrates and a great deal of what we need to know is yet to be discovered. It is clearly the case that fish, though different from birds and mammals, however, are sophisticated animals, far removed from unfeeling creatures with a 15 s memory of popular misconception. A heightened appreciation of these points in those who exploit fish and in those who seek to protect them would go a long way towards improving fish welfare.     

Guidelines for health and welfare monitoring of fish used in research

The aim of this paper is to provide background material necessary for the development of international guidelines for the health and welfare monitoring of fish used in research. It provides an overview of present guidelines and discusses why more detailed and species-specific guidelines are needed. A major issue within fish research is to document the situation today and point out areas where improvements are needed.     

Dietary self-selection in fish: a new approach to studying fish nutrition and feeding behavior

The principles of modern aquaculture encourage the development of fish feeds containing low fish meal content and several types of plant ingredients plus nutrients to avoid depleting global fish stocks and to reduce costs. However, food constituents can affect animal nutrition and feeding behavior, so the effect of different diets on fish behavior and growth needs to be understood to optimize the use of nutrients and to improve fish welfare. The development of multiple-choice self-feeding systems led to a new perspective for investigating these issues in aquaculture species. Our purpose with this review is to summarize the information that has been published to date on this topic and to identify gaps in knowledge where research is needed. Key subjects are assessed under the following major headings: How do we study dietary selection in fish? What food signals do fish use to choose the right diet? and How do fish respond to food challenges? The present review will provide a picture of the main results obtained to date in these studies in aquaculture fish species, as well as perspectives for future research in the field.     

Taking account of fish welfare: lessons from aquaculture

This paper explores the possibility that lessons learned from aquaculture might contribute to current debate on welfare and fisheries. After looking briefly at the history of research interest in the welfare of farmed fishes, some implications of using different definitions of and approaches to the concept of welfare are discussed. Consideration is given to the way in which the aquaculture industry has responded to public concern about fish welfare and, for cases where these responses have been effective, why this might be the case. Finally, possible cross‐over points between aquaculture and fisheries in the context of fish welfare, as well as experience and expertise that might be shared between these two areas, are identified.     

Stunning fish with CO2 or electricity: contradictory results on behavioural and physiological stress responses

Studies that address fish welfare before slaughter have concluded that many of the traditional systems used to stun fish including CO₂ narcosis are unacceptable as they cause avoidable stress before death. One system recommended as a better alternative is electrical stunning, however, the welfare aspects of this method are not yet fully understood. To assess welfare in aquaculture both behavioural and physiological measurements have been used, but few studies have examined the relationship between these variables. In an on-site study aversive behaviours and several physiological stress indicators, including plasma levels of cortisol and ions as well as blood physiological variables, were compared in Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) stunned with CO₂ or electricity. Exposure to water saturated with CO₂ triggered aversive struggling and escape responses for several minutes before immobilization, whereas in fish exposed to an electric current immobilization was close to instant. On average, it took 5 min for the fish to recover from electrical stunning, whereas fish stunned with CO₂ did not recover. Despite this, the electrically stunned fish had more than double the plasma levels of cortisol compared with fish stunned with CO₂. This result is surprising considering that the behavioural reactions were much more pronounced following CO₂ exposure. These contradictory results are discussed with regard to animal welfare and stress physiological responses. The present results emphasise the importance of using an integrative and interdisciplinary approach and to include both behavioural and physiological stress indicators in order to make accurate welfare assessments of fish in aquaculture.     

Understanding behaviour to improve the welfare of an ornamental fish

Some common practices in aquaculture, ornamental trade and fish facilities may disturb the behavioural repertoire of fish and its natural adaptive value, reducing welfare and impairing fish production. Hence, it is necessary to understand fish behaviour, as well as the factors affecting it, to improve the quality of fish's life under artificial environment. Here, we reviewed the behaviour of the angelfish Pterophyllum scalare, an Amazonian cichlid used worldwide both as an ornamental fish and as a fish model in scientific research. We characterized social, reproductive and feeding behaviour, as well as the amazing cognitive ability of the angelfish. In addition, we reviewed the effects of environmental enrichment and suggested some important variables that need to be considered for rearing P. scalare. In this review, we show for the first time a synthesis on behaviour and a best practice overview to improve the welfare of angelfish as a target species. Nonetheless, most topics reviewed fit a broader set of fish species, particularly ornamental ones. This synthesis can therefore open a path for further behavioural research applied to the welfare of angelfish and bring insights to other fish species.     

The Controversy on Fish Pain: A Veterinarian’s Perspective

Fish welfare is still a relatively new field. As such, regulations and protocols to ensure fish welfare are currently limited and vary considerably in different jurisdictions. This is in part because of the ongoing controversy as to whether or not fish feel pain. This controversy has persisted for several years, yet veterinarians have been mostly absent from the discussion so far. This essay aims to address this issue. Here, it is argued that while this controversy has its place, it is unlikely to be resolved in the near future. Fish welfare could instead be improved by pursuing more clinically applicable research to increase knowledge of fishes’ behavior and physiology. Such research would assist in learning the optimal environment for their specific needs, as well as compiling some verified indicators of pain in fish. This would then lead to improved studies that could help to determine if and when analgesic drugs can be beneficial in fish, as they are in many other species.