Examining zebrafish populations for the presence of disease is an integral component of managing fish health in research facilities. Currently, many different strategies are used for zebrafish fish health inspections, which is a scenario that may result in subjective and biased diagnostic evaluations. The goal of this study was to compare the success of pathogen detection between a sample size of randomly selected fish (n = 60) that provides 95% confidence in pathogen detection based on a presumed pathogen prevalence level ≥5%, and other subpopulations and sample numbers commonly submitted for diagnostic testing within a 1000 tank, 30,000 fish, recirculating research system. This included fish collected from a sump tank (n = 53), sentinel fish (n = 11), and fish that were found moribund or freshly dead (n = 18). Additionally, five fish from each subpopulation were collected for histopathologic examination. A second study used retrospective data to examine pathogen distribution between systems (n = 2-5) in multi-system facilities (n = 5) using a sample size of 60 fish per system. For the pathogens detected, results supported the use of representative sample numbers rather than smaller numbers of populations considered more at risk. The exception to this is for the moribund/mortality group, which may be a resource for targeted surveillance of select pathogens. Each system within multi-system facilities should be considered separate units in terms of fish health inspections and biosecurity. Development of these evidence-based standards for fish health inspections in zebrafish systems enhances fish welfare, provides identification of potentially zoonotic pathogens, and ensures scientific integrity and reproducibility of research results.

中文翻译：

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探索斑马鱼健康检查研究设施中常用采样方法的优缺点。

检查斑马鱼种群中是否存在疾病，这是在研究机构中管理鱼类健康的重要组成部分。当前，许多不同的策略用于斑马鱼鱼的健康检查，这种情况可能导致主观和偏见的诊断评估。这项研究的目的是比较随机选择的鱼类（n = 60）的样本中的病原体检测成功率，该样本基于假设的病原体患病率≥5％对病原体检测提供95％的置信度，以及其他亚群和样本通常在1000缸，30,000条鱼的循环研究系统中提交诊断测试的数量。其中包括从集水箱收集的鱼（n = 53），前哨鱼（n = 11）和发现垂死或刚死的鱼（n = 18）。另外，从每个亚群中收集5条鱼进行组织病理学检查。第二项研究使用回顾性数据来检查多系统设施（n = 5）中系统（n = 2-5）之间的病原体分布，每个系统的样本量为60条鱼。对于检测到的病原体，结果支持使用代表性样本数量，而不是使用被认为风险更大的较小数量的种群。濒死/死亡组除外，它可能是针对特定病原体进行有针对性监视的资源。就鱼类健康检查和生物安全而言，应将多系统设施内的每个系统视为独立的单元。制定这些基于证据的斑马鱼系统鱼类健康检查标准可增强鱼类福利，提供对潜在人畜共患病原体的识别，