Apart from the reason that they’re so interesting, there are countless reasons. The material below is a summary taken from Dr Jeff Wolf’s presentations over the last two days at the Aquavet II course.
We study fish for the:
Improvement of aquatic animal health
-Sport and commercial fisheries
-Aquaculture, ornamental fish trade
Animal models of human diseases
-Naturally occurring or genetically created
-Less emphasis lately
Surrogate test species for toxicology
-Less expensive than some mammalian models
-Less resistance from animal welfare advocates
Environmental sentinels
-Carcinogenesis
-Endocrine disruption
But why study fish of all things? Why not study birds?
It’s because the aquatic the aquatic environment is the essentially the “sink” for everything from the human household, to the industry, to farming, everything ends up in the water. Fish act as sentinels for our environmental health and our health.
The picture below is from a lecture provided by Jeffrey C. Wolf, DVM, DACVP from the Experimental Pathology Laboratories (EPL®), Inc. Sterling, VA, USA. He sourced this picture from Mr Ed Orlando.
We need to start thinking of the “One Health Concept” rather than thinking about it as animal health, fish health, human health, environment health. We live in a very interconnected world where for every action, there is a consequence.
Dr Loh’s trip to attend AquaVet has been made possible through the – “People development program: 2011 Aquatic Animal Health Training Scheme which is supported by funding from the FRDC on behalf of the Australian Government”.
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Yours sincerely,
Dr Richmond Loh
BSc BVMS MPhil MANZCVS (Aquatics) MANZCVS (Pathol)
The Fish Vet, Perth, Western Australia.
Veterinary Medicine for fish.
http://www.thefishvet.com.au
Ph: +61 (0)421 822 383
