The EAFP Histopathology Workshop

The EAFP histopathology workshop was born as the enthusiastic initiative of a small group of colleagues from around the world. Aware of the great opportunity to meet and exchange experience with other fish health practitioners in the field of histopathology, workshops were organised during the early ’90 conferences until it became a more formal event within the 1993 edition of the EAFP international conference. It was a great success from the start, and ever since, the Histopathology Workshop has become an integral component of the biennial EAFP international conference.

The workshop now takes place on an additional assigned day, usually before the start of the main international conference. It attracts a large number of participants including students and postdoctoral fellows as well as experienced diagnosticians and researchers. As histopathology remains a strongly required discipline in support of fish health management for farmed, pet or wild fish, the scope is to bring together experienced histopathologists alongside those who are just starting (including students) to share cases and encourage discussion to widen everyone’s knowledge.

In the past, the number of participants was limited by the availability of suitable venues with microscopes. However, beginning in 2017, access to high-resolution microscope slide scanning technology removed this limitation and allowed for the number of attendees to be greatly increased, as we now can work with digitised files.

The organization of the workshop is the responsibility of a small group of colleagues, currently from Australia, Switzerland, the USA and Scotland, some of them have been organising the workshop for over 20 years. Over the years we have covered each of the major tissues and organ systems, along with certain special topics such as neoplasms and parasites in histological sections. Within the workshop theme, a presentation on the histology of normal structure often precedes talks on abnormalities of the organ system. The significance of artefacts and interpretation of histology has been also covered. The theme of the next workshop is discussed with attendees at the end of each event. Participants are invited in advance to express interest in presenting cases, and a program is put together after quality checks and alignment with the workshop theme. After the workshop, presenters who are willing to share their work further are invited to submit extended abstracts, which are uploaded to the designated page of the EAFP website.

The EAFP provides the support and logistics to help coordinate with the main conference organization. However, the workshop needs to be financially independent and therefore a fee is required to cover costs, including invited speakers. The fee has been kept as low as possible all these years.

Presenting at the workshop represents an excellent opportunity for younger researchers to discuss their cases/work within a group of dedicated colleagues focused on the specific workshop topic. Over 50% of the attendees do not present work but participate as part of their skill development and learning experience. While participating is useful for all, is particularly attractive to students and early career colleagues, making the workshop certificate a valuable part of their portfolio for academic careers or post-graduation employment.