Efficacy of commercial transport media swabs for use in aquatic animal disease diagnosis

Investigate the appropriateness of commercially available transport media for pathogenic marine bacteria isolated from diseased fish.

Aquaculture

Aquaculture production of marine fish has developed in Australia to be a major primary production sector. With intensification of fish comes the emergence of infectious disease. For years there has been a suspicion amongst aquatic diagnosticians that transport of samples taken from fish in cases of bacterial infection may be affected by the type of media used to transport the samples.

Key methodology: 

  • Known bacterial pathogens will be placed in various transport media for variable times at variable temperatures.
  • Replicates of treatments will be undertaken to calculate the significance of the media effects on different species of bacteria.
  • If time permits, trials will be repeated on a specifically designed media for marine organisms.
Stephen Pyecroft

Supervisors

Dr Stephen Pyecroft

Co-supervisor: Ken Lee

Research area: Pathobiology, infectious disease and public health

Recommended honours enrolment: Honours in Animal Science

Tagged in Honours projects - Animal science, Honours projects - Ecology and environmental science, Honours projects - Stephen Pyecroft, Honours in Animal Science subtheme - Pathobiology infectious disease and public health