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The book "Aquaculture for Veterinarians, Fish Husbandry and Medicine", ISBN
0 08 040836 2, edited by Lydia Brown, published by Pergamon Press ( I
believe I got it from Aquatic Eco-Systems, an aquaculture supply business),
states:
"When fish are to be killed prior to sampling, anaesthetic overdose is the
method of choice."
They go on to state that the compound licensed [in US] for fish is Tricaine
methane sulphonate (ethyl m-amino benzoate) C10 H15 NO5 S (all numbers are
subscripts), with surgical anaesthesia accomplished with a 1:12,000
solution in water.
This is a fairly begnner-level text, but still has pertinent information.
It is quite geared to aquaculture, and discusses slaughter methods of
stunning or cutting out gill arches as also humane treatment (which simply
makes me shake my head in wonder).
Dr. Ron Coleman of UC Davis in California uses alcohol to kill and preserve
the eggs he studies for ongoing cichlid research. He is usually quite
willing to discuss anything fish, although he is also frequently
incommunicado doing field research in Costa Rica. His web site on cichlids
is www.cichlidresearch.com; the site lists his e-mail address.
Good luck on a difficult issue.
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Humphries [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2000 8:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Killing fish larvae
Dear All,
We have been sampling fish larvae for about five years and we have now come
to
the attention of Animal Ethics bureaucrats who are concerned about how we
are
killing our fish larvae. We cannot use formalin in our research centre for
health reasons and, since we need to look at otoliths of some of the
larvae, we
usually throw larvae <10 mm in lenghth straight into 95% ethanol. My
experience
is that the larvae die within a second or so and surely this must be
as'humane'
as any method. Juveniles and adults are anaesthetised first before being
put
into alcohol. The bureaucrats have queried the use of ethanol and put me
under
pressure to justify this method. Can anyone out there point me to
'official'
guidelines for the 'humane' killing of fish larvae?
Yours in hope and frustration, Paul.
Dr Paul Humphries
Research Fellow, Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology,
Department
of Biological Sciences,
Monash University, C/- Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre,
PO Box 921 Albury, NSW, 2640, AUSTRALIA
Tel: Int 61 02 60582317
Fax: int 61 02 60431626
email: [log in to unmask]
http://freshwater.canberra.edu.au/
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