Registration Details
Zebrafish are commonly used in biological and biomedical research and interest in how to maintain and promote higher standards of welfare for this species continues to grow. In this webinar, Professor Robert Gerlai will explore how an ethological approach, grounded in an understanding of zebrafish behaviour and ecology, can improve care of zebrafish in the laboratory and scientific outcomes. He will share findings from pilot studies focused on improving the welfare of zebrafish within his laboratory by investigating tank size, stocking density and handling methods. Robert will also place emphasis on the importance of having high standards of animal welfare for improving reproducibility and reducing variability and animal numbers.
This webinar is the first in an upcoming series focused on evidence-based welfare refinements for laboratory animals. Aimed at everyone working with research animals, the series highlights topics with practical relevance to support positive change in day-to-day practice.
About the speaker
Robert holds the position of John Carlin Roder Distinguished Professor in Behavioural Neuroscience at the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto (Mississauga campus). He is a leading figure in neurobehavioral genetics and zebrafish behavioural neuroscience research. He has published over 350 papers in peer reviewed scientific journals in addition to several book chapters and books, which together have been cited over 25,000 times. Robert has received numerous awards and recognitions, including selection as the North American recipient of the 2024 IQ Consortium/AAALAC International Global 3Rs Award for his work on refinements to zebrafish handling.
Talk abstract
How to improve the life of zebrafish in our laboratories? The importance of the ethological approach – Professor Robert Gerlai
In the past, the zebrafish was viewed as an egg-production factory, and most maintenance conditions were geared towards efficient and cost-effective mass-production of embryos. However, by now the zebrafish has become popular in most subdisciplines of biology, well beyond embryology, and in both basic research and biomedical, translational, studies. With this increased interest has come the realisation that numerous aspects of zebrafish maintenance conditions and experimental procedures employed in our laboratories may be suboptimal for this species. In this talk, I argue that systematic analyses, which parametrically manipulate environmental factors and measure their effects, are needed. I also argue that the starting points of these analyses should be information gathered about the natural habitat (ecology) and the natural behaviour (ethology) of the zebrafish. I present a theoretical example for why keeping zebrafish under unnatural conditions may lead to elevated error variation in the laboratory, and how this translates to reduced replicability and reproducibility of experimental results. I also present a couple of experimental examples for the first pilot studies we have conducted in my laboratory on improving conditions for, and procedures with, zebrafish: 1, optimization of tank volume and fish density in zebrafish housing; and 2, human handling methods. I argue that better understanding of the ethology and ecology of the zebrafish and optimization of maintenance conditions and of some common experimental procedures should reduce error variation, increase statistical power, and thus allow the investigators to use fewer animals in their studies. I conclude that what is humane and good for these fish is also good for the experimental biologist.