Animal facilities

The unique feature of our Zebrafish Facility is that it is designed for studies related to the aquaculture sector (freshwater and marine). In fact, the studies conducted so far relate to:

• Replacing fishmeal in fish feed – Studies have been conducted using alternative feed ingredients such as insect meal and autolysed yeast.
• Nutraceutical effects of fish feed ingredients – several studies have been conducted on the immunomodulatory effect of 1,3-1,6 ß-glucans, evaluating, among other things, the intensity of the tissue regeneration process and wound healing.
• Use of essential oils in fish egg disinfection – Several essential oils and their extracts have been tested on zebrafish embryos for their antifungal activity against the parasitic worm (Saprolegnia parasitica) (Zebrafish facility.pdf)

Main bibliographic references

• Dahm R., Geisler R., 2006. Learning from small fry: the zebrafish as a genetic model organism for aquaculture fish species. Marine Biotechnology, 8, 4, 329–345; doi:10.1007/s10126-006-5139-0
• Howe, K., Clark M.D., Torroja, C.F., Torrance, J., Berthelot, C., et al., 2013. The zebrafish reference genome sequence and its relationship to the human genome. Nature. 2013 Apr 25; 496(7446): 498–503. Ulloa, P.E., Iturra, P., Neira, R., 2011. Zebrafish as a model organism for nutrition and growth: towards comparative studies of nutritional genomics applied to aquacultured fishes. Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries, 1-18.
• Ribas L. and Piferrer F., 2013. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model organism, with emphasis on applications for finfish aquaculture research. Reviews in Aquaculture, 5, 1–32; doi: 10.1111/raq.12041
• Ulloa, P.E., Medrano J.F., Feijoo C.G., 2014. Zebrafish as animal model for aquaculture nutrition research. Frontiers in genetics, 5, 1-6; doi: 10.3389/fgene.2014.00313