Standardized Welfare Terms for the Zebrafish Community

Managing the welfare of laboratory animals is critical to animal health, vital in the understanding of phenotypes created by treatment or genetic alteration and ensures compliance of regulations. Part of an animal welfare assessment is the requirement to record observations, ensuring all those responsible for the animals are aware of their health status and can act accordingly. Although the use of zebrafish in research continues to increase, guidelines for conducting welfare assessments and the reporting of observations are considered unclear compared to mammalian species. To support the movement of zebrafish between facilities, significant improvement would be achieved through the use of standardized terms to ensure clarity and consistency between facilities. Improving the clarity of terminology around welfare not only addresses our ethical obligation but also supports the research goals and provides a searchable description of the phenotypes. A Collaboration between the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Cambridge University (Department of Medicine-Laboratory of Molecular Biology) has led to the creation of the zebrafish welfare terms from which standardization of terminology can be achieved.