Our Research

 The study of impacts of stressors on aquatic animals such as fish is critical to understanding and addressing challenges to animal health. Non-infectious stressors to fish stocks in Alaska include changing environmental conditions such as warming or altered water quality, contaminants, as well as algal and cnidarian blooms. Pathogenic challenges to fish health include infectious bacteria, viruses, parasites, & fungi within both marine and freshwater systems. 

Research by the Fish Health & Pathology group is focused on the health of aquatic organisms.
Through use of molecular techniques and classic pathology we seek to understand the aetiology of disease in the aquatic environment towards enhanced surveillance for important and emerging challenges to aquatic animal health. This information is critical for science-based regulation and management of fish stocks.

---

Research should be collaborative, with integration of expertise across state, federal, Tribal, community, and academic institutions towards our shared goals of improved understanding of aquatic animal health and disease.

Pathology of teleost disease

Necropsy, clinical pathology and microscopic imaging are key tools in surveillance and diagnosis of aquatic animal disease. Expertise within the fish health & pathology group allows us to perform detailed veterinary investigations of the macroscopic and microscopic changes associated with teleost disease. Cellular changes and description of the pathology associated with both infectious and non-infectious challenges to the health of important commercial and subsistence fish in Alaska are of particular interest.

Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae (myxozoan parasite and causative agent of Proliferative Kidney Disease) in H&E stained salmonid kidney tissue section (X400 magnification). Clinton et al, 2021.

Host response to environmental challenge

 Through use of molecular techniques, our research seeks to understand the host response to stressors for altered health status in fish. A great deal is still to be learnt regarding the immunology and physiology of many aquatic animals, particularly invertebrates. Our group is therefore interested in exploring the transition from 'healthy' to 'diseased' host state through use of techniques such as the transcriptomic response and biomarkers of clinical pathology. 

A current research focus within the group is the impact of algal and cnidarian organisms on fish health, and how non-infectious stressors such as these can impact incidence of infectious disease in aquatic animals. We work closely with wild stock managers, aquaculture producers and local communities because aquatic animal health consequences do not occur in a vacuum. Animal health, environmental health and human health are closely intertwined. Our research seeks to involve all knowledge-holders and interest groups in understanding the complexities of environmental change (including climate change) on aquatic animal health. 

Clinical Diagnostics

Mixed gill pathology in Pacific salmon, including bacterial growth and presence of parasitic Trichodina spp. (X200 magnification, unpublished).

Lead by Dr Morag Clinton, a veterinarian with specialism in fish health, work also focuses on improving the health and welfare of aquatic animals, but wild and cultured. Through application of a veterinary skillset, we aim to develop innovative approaches to infectious disease surveillance and diagnosis that limit impacts of research on wild stocks. Additionally, we work with aquaculture producers to enhance the health and welfare of cultured stocks for  improved production and reduced environmental impacts. We also seek to improve baseline understanding of many of the previously under-studied species of aquatic animals present in abundance within the marine and freshwater aquatic environments of Alaska.