Government mail service may be affected by the Canada Post labour disruption. Learn about how critical government mail will be handled.
Overview
The Alberta Provincial Fish Disease Laboratory provides quality diagnostic and health screening testing for wild and cultured fish populations of Alberta, supporting different clients, partners and fish health management programs.
The lab was renovated in 2025 and has 5 modern open concept lab units:
- a fully equipped necropsy room dedicated to dissecting fish, examining and collecting tissues for further testing
- a cell culture lab for detecting fish viruses with select fish cell lines
- a microbiology lab for the detection and identification of bacterial pathogens
- a parasitology unit dedicated to investigating fish parasites
- a molecular biology suite for the molecular detection of fish pathogens
The lab’s scope of testing includes:
- annual health screening and disease testing to investigate mortality or morbidity in Alberta government fish culture facilities
- disease testing to support fish stocking and fish transfers, such as the Walleye Stocking Program
- investigating and diagnosing disease outbreaks or fish kills in the wild
- surveillance of new or emerging fish pathogens to prevent their entry into the province
- whirling disease testing
- Parks Canada sentinel cage studies testing for whirling disease and proliferative kidney disease
The goal of the lab is to help safeguard the health of our fish populations by effectively monitoring and managing threats posed by diseases. It also enhances the capacity to prevent the introduction or spread of fish diseases into the province by improving the Alberta government’s capacity to test and detect pathogens of fish origin.
Collecting fish samples
Fish samples are submitted to the lab by Alberta government fisheries biologists, fish culture technicians, pathologists, other wildlife staff, and partners such as Parks Canada, the University of Alberta School of Public Health, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and regional fisheries biologists.
Samples submitted to the lab include:
- freshly dead or harvested fish
- live fish and moribund fish samples
- ovarian fluid
- milts
- sediments
- water samples
- cranial tissues
- Triactinomyxon (TAM) spore filtrations
Fresh fish samples are preferred as specimens for accurate and reliable diagnostic test results. However, frozen fish samples are acceptable for the detection of certain pathogens.
Fish species received in the lab may include:
- trout – rainbow, bull, cutthroat, lake, brook
- mountain whitefish
- Northern pike
- yellow perch
- walleye
- Arctic grayling
- lake sturgeon
- many other fish species
Submissions from the public
Fish samples are not received directly from the public. However, you are encouraged to report fish kills, or fish caught with suspected diseased condition or anomaly, to provincial fisheries biologists. Photos of the diseased catch can also be submitted to assist in diagnosing the disease.
- Find a fisheries biologist in your area by selecting the fisheries contact district or region on the map.
- Learn more about summer and winter kills, where a large number of fish die in a lake.
Testing for disease
Annually, the lab processes and tests over 1,500 fish samples. The lab uses a wide variety of specialized techniques such as necropsy, bacteriology, parasitology, virus isolation and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect and identify diverse fish pathogens of concern.
The lab routinely tests for the following fish pathogens:
- Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis virus
- Infectious Hematopoietic Necrosis virus
- Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia virus
- Renibacterium salmoninarum – the causative agent of Bacterial Kidney Disease
- Aeromonas salmonicida – the causative agent of Furunculosis
- Yersinia ruckeri – the causative agent of Enteric Redmouth Disease
- Flavobacterium columnare – causative agent of Columnaris
- Myxobolus cerebralis – the causative agent of Whirling disease
- Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae – the causative agent of proliferative kidney disease
Other diagnostic tests such as histopathology and parasite identification, not currently performed at the lab, are outsourced to other private or public laboratories. Confirmatory tests for any presumptive positive reportable disease or pathogens are conducted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) laboratories.
Laboratory equipment and standards
The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art specialized equipment for a wide range of microbiological methods, molecular assays and cell culture.
The lab is staffed with highly trained fish health technicians, a veterinary microbiologist, a molecular biologist and invests heavily in training and continuous improvement.
The lab is certified by the CFIA as an aquatic containment level II (AQC2) facility and operates under the Public Health Agency of Canada Pathogens and Toxins License. CFIA recently granted the lab a domestic movement permit – Closed Premise permit – that enables the lab to receive and process samples from external watersheds outside the province of Alberta.
The lab follows the International Quality Assurance Standards to ensure diagnostic test results are reliable and scientifically valid and plans are underway to seek formal accreditation to ISO17025 International Standards specifying requirements for quality and competence in testing and calibration laboratories.
The lab also follows the provisions of the American Fisheries Society – Fish Health Section suggested procedures for the “Detection and Identification of Certain Finfish and Shellfish Pathogens” and the World Organization for Animal Health testing methods in conducting its testing.
Continual improvement
The lab continues to develop and validate new methods to expand its testing capability. To improve efficiency and accelerate turn-around time for test results, efforts are geared towards using more sensitive molecular and bacterial identification techniques.
The lab recently added a new qPCR assay to its scope of testing to detect proliferative kidney disease in salmonids and plans are ongoing for the lab to provide additional testing to support Alberta’s aquatic invasive species monitoring programs, specifically environmental DNA (eDNA) testing for zebra and quagga mussels.
Contact
Connect with the Provincial Fish Disease Laboratory:
Hours: 8:15 am to 4:30 pm (open Monday to Friday, closed statutory holidays)
Phone: 780-446-0687
Toll free: 310-0000 before the phone number (in Alberta)
Back to
Fish disease monitoring