Evaluating and Optimizing Fish Health and Welfare During Experimental Procedures.

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. via http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/zeb.2015.1165Many facilities house fish in separate static containers post-procedure, for example, while awaiting genotyping results. This ensures fish can be easily identified, but it does not allow for provision of continuous filtered water or diet. At the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, concern over the housing conditions led to the development of an individual housing system (GeneS) enabling feeding and water filtration. Trials to compare the water quality measures between the various systems found that fish housed in static containers experienced rapid deterioration in water quality. By day 1, measures of ammonia were outside the Institute's prescribed values and continued to rise until it was 25-fold higher than recommended levels. Nitrite levels were also outside recommended levels for all fish by day 9 and were twofold higher by the end of the trial. The water quality measures for tanks held on the recirculating system were stable even though food was provided. These results indicate that for housing zebrafish, running water or appropriately timed water changes are a critical component to ensure that the ethical obligations are met.We thank the staff from the Sanger Institute's Research Support Facility, Zebrafish Mutation Project, and Jacqui White for their support. This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust grant number 098051

Design and Husbandry Considerations for a Containment Level 2 Aquatics Facility

The greatly increased use of aquatics species to study disease over the past 20 years necessitates understanding their husbandry and housing requirements to optimize research and welfare and ensure compliance with regulations. To achieve these goals, aquatics systems have expanded from pet shop and home aquaria to research grade systems incorporating designs and features to increase their robustness, practicality, and flexibility. Moreover, these last decades have seen the increasing use of aquatic animals for infectious disease research using containment level 2/biosafety level 2 (CL2/BSL2) pathogens. Here, we discuss the facility design requirements and modifications which must be considered for the planning, construction and use of an aquatics facility for zebrafish infected with CL2 pathogens. These include decontamination of water and equipment, racking and filtration design, personal protective equipment, and husbandry procedures. This guidance is based on our experience in the design and ongoing management of such facilities

A feasibility and safety study of bronchoscopic thermal vapor ablation: A novel emphysema therapy

Purpose. This study reports the feasibility and safety of novel second-generation bronchoscopic lung volume reduction (LVR) technology, independent of collateral ventilation

Sequential unilateral lung volume reduction for emphysema - Stretching the benefit

Bronchoscopic Lung Volume Reduction (BLVR) and Surgical Lung Volume Reduction (SLVR) and are two different approaches used to remodel severely emphysematous lungs to improve lung function and quality-of-life. We present a case initially referred for lung transplantation, where sequential left upper lobe BLVR and 7 years later right upper lobe SLVR, providing enduring physiological and functional improvement. The potential for sustained benefit via sequential unilateral lung volume reduction is under-appreciated