Scots biologists look to reduce experiments on fish

UK: A leading Aberdeen fish biologist and his team are among researchers to receive an award from the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs).

The grant to Professor Christopher Secombes of almost £157,000 is among 13 research grants announced this week as part of the annual research funding scheme that aims to replace, reduce and refine the use of animals in experiments (the 3Rs).

The scheme funds key UK projects that will advance knowledge and application of the 3Rs and improve laboratory animal welfare.

The award to Professor Secombes — who is Head of the University’s School of Biological Sciences — and his collaborators Dr Yolanda Corripio-Miyar and Dr Jun Zou, is to develop in vitro laboratory tests to determine the efficacy of vaccines in fish.

New vaccines require thorough testing before they can be used, which currently involves vaccinating and then infecting test fish with the relevant pathogens to assess how well the vaccine works. An in vitro efficacy test in the laboratory would greatly reduce the numbers of fish suffering from lethal pathogenic infection during the early phases of vaccine development.

Welcoming news of the award, Professor Secombes said: ““Over the last few years our work at the Scottish Fish Immunology Research Centre has been focused on the discovery of new and novel immune genes. Whilst we have a long way to go to fully understand the mechanism that control disease resistance in fish, nevertheless we are now in a position to begin to develop ways to reduce the need for live fish tests, which is one of our long term goals. This award will allow us to undertake one such approach as a proof of principle, and we are very pleased to have been given this opportunity.”