Guidelines for the Use of Fishes in Research

4. Animal Welfare Considerations

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781934874394.ch4

Research involving living animals, including fishes, must be based on experimental designs and animal care practices that can lead to scientifically valid results. Fishes are acutely sensitive to stress (e.g., Barton and Iwama 1991), and responses may include changes in behavior (e.g., Martins et al. 2012), reduced growth, changes in osmotic status, suppressed immune systems (with consequent disease onset), and altered reproductive capacity (Iwama et al. 2006; Schreck et al. 2001; Schreck 2010). Accordingly, unless the experimental objectives require actions or conditions designed to test responses to stress, fishes should be maintained, handled, and tested under conditions that will not create such responses. The Guidelines addresses the conduct of scientific research and focuses on established facts and the processes through which knowledge is developed. Research plans submitted to IACUCs should address animal care considerations, in addition to the details of research goals, objectives, and procedures. The extent to which IACUCs incorporate personal values concerning animal welfare into their institutional guidelines is determined within each institution.

The study of stress has focused on how animals have evolved physiological and behavioral mechanisms to address the challenges of changing environmental conditions and then to permit them to maintain homeostasis, or self-sustaining balance. The set of environmental variables (conditions) best suited for the well-being of each species typically encompasses a specific range for each factor and species (see section 5.7 Facilities for Temporary Holding and Maintenance), as stress responses are species-specific (Schreck 2010). Accordingly, when fishes are maintained within these ranges, a state of homeostatic balance is expected. Deviations from homeostasis characterize a stress response. While many definitions for stress have been proposed, we employ the definition of Schreck (2000) and Schreck et al. (2001): “a physiological cascade of events that occurs when the organism is attempting to resist death or reestablish homeostatic norms in the face of insult.” When stressed, fish generally attempt to reestablish homeostasis via a process known as “allostasis regulation in which they adjust their physiological function to re-establish a dynamic balance” (Sterling and Eyer 1988). While allostasis is generally adaptive because it helps keep animals alive in the face of a short-term stressor(s), it can be maladaptive over the long term and have negative consequences on growth, reproduction, and immunological health (Schreck 2010). Accordingly, investigators need to understand those factors that might cause stress in their experimental animal(s), the potential consequences, and how stress might be avoided by optimizing experimental conditions.