The Aquatic Medicine Program at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine serves as a resource and aquatic animal facility for faculty and graduate students. The program focuses on the diseases, diagnosis, pathology, immunology, parasitology and bacteriology of both vertebrate and invertebrate aquatic organisms. The laboratory is equipped to maintain a variety of freshwater and marine species, and provide a basic laboratory for investigations into these organisms. The Aquatic Medicine Laboratory also serves as a source of collaborative efforts with other institutions and agencies interested in the culture, diseases, and problems associated with aquatic organisms.

The objectives of the VMRCVM Aquatic Medicine Program are:

  1. To provide all veterinary students with an introduction to aquatic animal medicine through both lectures and laboratories in elective offerings.
     
  2. To provide experience and advanced training in aquatic animal medicine to post-DVM and graduate students.
     
  3. To provide expertise in the health evaluation and management of aquatic animal species.
     
  4. To develop a veterinary database for the establishment of clinical assessment values and diagnostic assays for commonly presented species.


  

 
The July/August 2005 issue of Lab Animal Magazine features an article by VMRCVM’s Stephen A. Smith DVM PhD and Jim Berkson PhD. In Laboratory Culture and Maintenance of the Horseshoe Crab (Limulus polyphemus) Smith and Berkson review the conditions necessary for housing these highly-studied invertabrate animals in the laboratory.

Volume 34 No 7, pp27 - 34 doi:10.1038/laban0705-27, pp27-34