The traditional biennial EAFP Fish Histopathology Workshop, organized with the EAFP conference, took place on 10th September 2023 in Aberdeen, Scotland. This year, the workshop focused on gastrointestinal tract and accessory digestive organs and Jeff Wolf was the keynote speaker. He talked about “Comparing apples and oranges and pears and kumquats: the misuse of index systems for processing histopathology data in fish toxicological bioassays”. Together with Heike Schmidt-Posthaus, Jeff Wolf also gave the presentation on normal anatomy of the gastrointestinal tract in teleosts, which was followed by Diane Elliott’s talk on normal anatomy of the gastrointestinal tract in sturgeon.

Another keynote was contributed by Carolina de Sales, who spoke about “An end to the controversy over the microscopic detection and effects of pristine microplastics in fish organs”. Classification of autolytic changes in carp exocrine pancreatic tissue fixed with 10% neutral buffered formalin in comparison to Davidson’s fixative was discussed by Christoph Steinbach. The main part of the workshop focused on the thirteen cases presented by the workshop participants. These cases ranged from parasitic infections to nutritional diseases and conditions of unknown aetiology and covered many fish species, including rainbow trout, zebrafish, European sea bass and barramundi.

All histology slides for those cases were digitized and the link provided to all participants before the workshop. The link remained active until December 2023 to allow further discussion and revision. The availability of the slides during the workshop allowed active participation and discussion. The workshop was attended by 52 participants, representing different interests including research and industry. It was organized by Barbara Nowak, Diane Elliott, Heike Schmidt-Posthaus and Patricia Noguera. Thanks to the keynote speakers, presenters, participants and organizers, the workshop was a great success.

The list below shows all the presentations provided during the workshop. The access to the workshop proceedings is granted to active EAFP members only. 

Please click here to access available files, upon login using valid credentials. 

• Diane Elliott and Carla Conway – Normal Gastrointestinal Tract Histology of White Sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus and Comparison to Sturgeon from a Contaminated Habitat.
• Constenla et al. – Archamoebae in the intestine of Senegalese sole, Solea senegalensis.
• Nicolas Diserens and Tatiana Zingre – Nutrition-related degenerative, proliferative and inflammatory hepatic and enteric changes in European perch (Perca fluviatilis).
• Eva Lewisch – Presumptive parasitic objects in the liver of European chub, Squalius cephalus. 
• Kai-Inge Lie – Necrotizing hepatitis in farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) associated with Salmoxcellia vastator (formerly Pisciperkinsus sp). 
• Francesc Padrós and Maria Constenla – Zebrafish, herbicides and sometimes surprises. 
• Pirollo et al. – Co-infection by coccidia (Apicomplexa) and Sphaerospora dicentrarchi (Myxozoa) in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax).
• Pirollo et al. – Severe enteric infection caused by the myxozoan Enteromyxum leei in gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata). 
• Margarita Smirnov – First case of infectious spleen and kidney necrosis virus (ISKNV) infection in Israeli mariculture gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata).
• Steinbach et al. – Classification of autolytic degeneration in the exocrine pancreatic tissue in carp fixed with 10% neutral buffered formalin and Davidson’s fixative. 
• Stefania Vannetti and Heike Schmidt-Posthaus – Proliferative enteritis in stickleback caused by Goussia sp.