Zebrafish: an animal model for research in veterinary medicine

Abstract

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) has become known as an excellent model organism for studies of vertebrate biology, vertebrate genetics, embryonal development, diseases and drug screening. Nevertheless, there is still lack of detailed reports about usage of the zebrafish as a model in veterinary medicine. Comparing to other vertebrates, they can lay hundreds of eggs at weekly intervals, externally fertilized zebrafish embryos are accessible to observation and manipulation at all stages of their development, which makes possible to simplify the research techniques such as fate mapping, fluorescent tracer time-lapse lineage analysis and single cell transplantation. Although zebrafish are only 2.5 cm long, they are easy to maintain. Intraperitoneal and intracerebroventricular injections, blood sampling and measurement of food intake are possible to be carry out in adult zebrafish. Danio rerio is a useful animal model for neurobiology, developmental biology, drug research, virology, microbiology and genetics. A lot of diseases, for which the zebrafish is a perfect model organism, affect aquatic animals. For a part of them, like those caused by Mycobacterium marinum or Pseudoloma neutrophila, Danio rerio is a natural host, but the zebrafish is also susceptible to the most of fish diseases including Itch, Spring viraemia of carp and Infectious spleen and kidney necrosis. The zebrafish is commonly used in research of bacterial virulence. The zebrafish embryo allows for rapid, non-invasive and real time analysis of bacterial infections in a vertebrate host. Plenty of common pathogens can be examined using zebrafish model: Streptococcus iniae, Vibrio anguillarum or Listeria monocytogenes. The steps are taken to use the zebrafish also in fungal research, especially that dealing with Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans. Although, the zebrafish is used commonly as an animal model to study diseases caused by external agents, it is also useful in studies of metabolic disorders including fatty liver disease and diabetes. The zebrafish is also a valuable tool as a model in behavioral studies connected with feeding, predator evasion, habituation and memory or lateralized control of behavior. The aim of the present article is to familiarize the reader with the possibilities of Danio rerio as an experimental model for veterinary medicine.

Heat‐inactivated Mycobacterium bovis protects zebrafish against mycobacteriosis

“…Chow, Xue, and Kent () reported that zebrafish males are more susceptible than females to P. neurophilia , thus suggesting that although still to be proven it may also occur with Mycobacterium spp. Behavioural patterns in zebrafish could be associated with feeding and predator evasion and could be affected by pathogen infection (Miklósi & Andrew, ; Nowik et al., ). Feeding behaviour is a complex process in fish (Volkoff & Peter, ).…”

“…The number of granuloma types per fish was compared between vaccinated and control groups by Mann-Whitney U test (p = 0.05; N = 5/group) [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] although still to be proven it may also occur with Mycobacterium spp. Behavioural patterns in zebrafish could be associated with feeding and predator evasion and could be affected by pathogen infection (Miklósi & Andrew, 2006;Nowik et al, 2015). Feeding behaviour is a complex process in fish (Volkoff & Peter, 2006).…”

“…The zebrafish Danio rerio (Hamilton, 1822) has become an excellent model organism for studies of vertebrate biology, genetics, development, diseases and drug screening (Nowik et al, 2015). In particular, adult zebrafish have recently emerged as a useful model for studying the complex pathophysiology of mycobacterial infection, based on the similarities between the infection with the natural fish pathogen, M. marinum and M. tuberculosis in humans (Aubry et al, 2017;Cronan & Tobin, 2014;van Leeuwen, van der Sar, & Bitter, 2015;Myllymäki et al, 2016;Ramakrishnan, 2013).…”

A Comparative Study on Antioxidant System in Fish Hepatopancreas and Intestine Affected by Choline Deficiency: Different Change Patterns of Varied Antioxidant Enzyme Genes and Nrf2 Signaling Factors

“…As Cyprinidae fish, the common carp ( Cyprinus carpio ) is closely related to zebrafish ( Danio rerio ), a commonly used animal model to study human disease [29], and is also highly suitable for comparative physiological and disease studies in combination with zebrafish [30]. Jian carp is a strain of carp developed by crossbreeding, inbreeding and artificial selection of common carp, and has genetic similarity with common carp [31].…”

Establishment of Infection Models in Zebrafish Larvae (Danio rerio) to Study the Pathogenesis of Aeromonas hydrophila

“…Although zebrafish ( Danio rerio ) have been used in science since the 1970s ( Grunwald and Eisen, 2002 ), only in the last decade have they become a relevant model to study human diseases such as cancers, cardiovascular and muscular malformations, and depressive disorders ( Lieschke and Currie, 2007 ; Goldsmith and Jobin, 2012 ; Santoriello and Zon, 2012 ; Phillips and Westerfield, 2014 ; Lin et al, 2016 ). Moreover, zebrafish have been used for studying animal and human infectious disease ( Novoa and Figueras, 2012 ; Nowik et al, 2015 ) because its immune system is similar to that of mammals ( Dios et al, 2010 ; Lugo-Villarino et al, 2010 ; Renshaw and Trede, 2012 ; Van der Vaart et al, 2012 ). The immune system of adult zebrafish includes almost all lymphoid organs and immune cell types ( Trede et al, 2004 ; Levraud et al, 2008 ; Renshaw and Trede, 2012 ).…”