Fish Health Unit

The Fish Health Unit is located in the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences. The key staff members are Associate Professor Alan Lymbery, Dr Rob Doupé, Dr Phil Nicholls and Dr Stan Fenwick. We currently have nine postgraduate students working on a range of different research topics.

Research

The strategic research focus of the Fish Health Unit is the health of cultured and wild aquatic species and the environment in which they are found. The conceptual basis of this research lies in understanding the link between environmental stressors (particularly those of human origin), ecosystem structure (biotic diversity and composition) and ecosystem function (stocks, fluxes and stability of energy and materials).

Our principal areas of research are:

Teaching

The Fish Health Unit teaches a rotation in fish health to final year veterinary students. We also incorporate fish health issues into more general courses, such as pathology and parasitology, within the veterinary curriculum at Murdoch. In addition, we have a regular flow of Honours students in the fish health area; 10 completions, with 8 Class I in the last five years.