Zebrafish Body Condition Scoring 

Starting in 2012, the UCL Zebrafish Facility created and deployed a new body condition scoring system.  Such systems are common in other mammalian counterparts, but at that point, there was no equivalent for fish.  The body condition scoring system won the Andrew Blake Memorial Award and was published in Animal Technology and Welfare the following year. 

The project continued, with refinements and applications.  The system was used to show that health monitors were more likely to be able to identify ill health in fish with its use.  In addition, the system allows for a standardisation of health records, which has led to our health records being used for meta-analysis.  These analyses have identified trends such as ill health in specific strains, and inbreeding effects.

The project overall has garnered awards from various bodies over the years for the different steps and directions that the project has taken.  See the list of our achievements relating to this topic below.

Poster Prize: Fish Vet Conference, 2015
Author: Carole Wilson
Title: Body Condition Scoring System for Laboratory Zabrafish

Poster Prize: LASA Winter Meeting 2015
Authors: Carole Wilson & Karen Dunford
Title: Refining Severity Limits for Laboratory Zebrafish

Poster Prize: NC3Rs 2015
Authors: Karen Dunford & Carole Wilson
Title: Refinement of a Health Monitoring System for Laboratory Zebrafish

RSPCA Poster Prize: SEB Animal Symposium 2016
Authors: Karen Dunford, Visila Moiche and Carole Wilson
Title: Refining Severity Limits for Laboratory Zebrafish