As a component of diagnostic test evaluation, the estimation of repeatability and reproducibility of an assay is necessary to assess the robustness and the transferability of the method among laboratories. Respectively defined as the agreement within and between laboratories, repeatability and repro...

In New Brunswick, Canada, the sea louse, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, poses an on-going management challenge to the health and productivity of commercially cultured Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar. While the in-feed medication, emamectin benzoate has been highly effective for many years, evidence of increa...

Sea lice audits were performed by the Atlantic Veterinary College on commercial aquaculture sites in New Brunswick, Canada, in 2011. Although the primary objective was to verify that farms were reporting similar lice counts to third-party counts, more detailed comparisons were made to identify w...

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is the target of a major pesticide family, the organophosphates, which were extensively used as control agents of sea lice on farmed salmonids in the early 1990s. From the mid-1990s the organophosphates dichlorvos and azamethiphos were seriously compromised by the develop...

The Canadian lobster industry holds lobsters Homarus americanus in captivity for various periods to supply markets with live product year-round. Mortality during holding results in considerable losses, estimated at 10 to 15 % yr(-1) by the industry. This study examined the prevalence of Anophryoides...

Infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV) is a new orthomyxovirus-like virus. Thirteen isolates of ISAV (11 from Canada, one from Norway and one from Scotland) were studied for their replication in the CHSE-214 cell line compared with that in the SHK-1 cell line. All isolates replicated in SHK-1 cells,...

Infectious salmon anemia (ISA) is a viral disease in farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar, characterized by lethargy, anorexia, anemia and death. Test methods used for regulatory decisions to remove infected cages include the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT), the reverse transcription-polymer...

A bioassay for sea lice Lepeophtheirus salmonis sensitivity towards emamectin benzoate (EMB) was validated for field use. A probit regression model with natural responsiveness was used for the number of affected (moribund or dead) sea lice in bioassays involving different concentrations of EMB. Bioa...

Diagnostic laboratories frequently select a subjective cutoff value for real-time amplification assays, above which a threshold cycle (Ct) value is deemed false. Commonly, higher Ct values are interpreted as amplification or fluorescence artifacts, or cross contaminations. Although the implementatio...

Emamectin benzoate has been used to treat sea lice, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, infestations on farmed Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar. Recent evidence suggests a reduction in effectiveness in some locations. A major challenge in the detection of tolerance emergence can be the typically l...

In contrast to mammalian therapeutics, the use of pharmaceutical substances is rather limited in fish. It is basically restricted to anaesthetic agents and anti-infective agents for parasitic and microbial diseases. Anaesthetic agents are used primarily in fish farm and laboratory settings to provid...

This study describes and compares lobster fishing and handling practices on various boats, transportation conditions between fishing wharfs and processing plants, and health assessments of lobsters followed from the time of harvest to the time of arrival at the processing plants during the spring an...

The objective of this study was to identify risk factors for productivity losses in the Canadian lobster industry. Lobster handling and fishing practices onboard 64 fishing boats and transportation conditions on 49 vehicles subsequently transporting these lobsters from fishing wharves to processing ...

Emamectin benzoate (an avermectin chemotherapeutant administered to fish as an in-feed treatment) has been used to treat infestations of sea lice Lepeophtheirus salmonis on farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar in the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada, since 1999. This retrospective...

The growth, survival and tag retention of double-tagged external FT4 lock-on (FT4) and internal passive integrated transponder (PIT)-tagged] Atlantic halibut Hippoglossus hippoglossus were compared to internal PIT-tagged controls in a randomized trial. The objective was to assess the suitability of ...

To secure the safety of international trade of animal and their derived products, it is required that animals should be proven infection-free using a validated diagnostic test certified by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Test validation involves a multi-step evaluation process to as...

We previously reported our use of latent-class models to estimate the sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) for each of three tests used to monitor farmed salmon for infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAv). Those tests were reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), virus isolation (VI...

In the absence of a reference standard, a latent class model (LCM) was used in this study to assess diagnostic sensitivity (DSe) and specificity (DSp) of a recently developed reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for infectious salmon anaemia virus (ISAV). The study included 4 pop...

Conventional studies on the precision of diagnostic tests with binary outcomes report single descriptive estimates of agreement for a particular pool of samples. However, agreement for binary tests is intrinsically associated with the assay operating characteristics that are influenced by population...