✓Perform systematic necropsy on wild fish specimens
✓Collect and preserve tissues for pathology and molecular analyses
✓Document external lesions and calculate health condition indices
✓Extract otoliths and immune function samples from fish
Protocol
The health of wild fishes can be used as an indicator of aquatic ecosystem health. Necropsy-based fish health assessments provide documentation of visible lesions or abnormalities, data used to calculate condition indices as well as the opportunity to collect tissues for microscopic evaluation, gene expression and other more in-depth analyses.
Difficulty
intermediate
Total time
~1–2 hours per fish specimen
Model organism
Wild fish (example: White Sucker, Catostomus commersonii)
Biosafety
BSL-1
Steps
1
Perform fish necropsy and document lesions
Execute systematic necropsy procedure on wild fish specimens. Document all visible external and internal lesions, abnormalities, and morphological observations.
▶ 01:37
2
Preserve tissues for microscopic pathology
Collect and properly preserve tissue samples in appropriate fixatives for subsequent histological examination and microscopic analysis.
▶ 03:48
3
Remove otoliths for age determination
Carefully extract otoliths (ear bones) from fish specimens for age and growth analysis using standard preparation methods.
▶ 04:35
4
Collect tissue for immune and molecular assays
Obtain tissue samples for immune function assays and preserve tissues in appropriate preservatives for nucleic acid extraction and gene expression studies.
▶ 05:21
5
Interpret necropsy findings and pathologies
Analyze and document results from necropsy including external raised lesions, internal abnormalities such as liver tumors, and other indicators of ecosystem health.
▶ 06:16
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