Božidar Rašković (Institute of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Belgrade) will present a seminar entitled "Histopathological biomarkers in fish: a method for assessment of aquatic pollution" at 12 pm at CIIMAR facilities.

With a range of different chemicals and procedures that are applied in modern industry, agriculture and households, a number of synthesized molecules are ending up in the environment, for example, metals, pesticides, persistent organic pollutants. From the environment, they are entering aquatic organisms, either by feeding or by being exposed to the water with high accumulation of these contaminants. When they are found in the body of an animal, contaminants are termed “xenobiotics” and are affecting the physiology of range of aquatic animals, including fish to which they induce pathological changes. As an indicator of exposure to contaminants, histology represents a useful tool to assess the degree of pollution, particularly for sub-lethal and chronic effects. It is based on the premise that histopathological alterations could be quantified, which give us the possibility to compare the status of fish from a polluted and unpolluted environment. A brief overview of the histological protocol will be given, followed by the example of field studies performed on various freshwater fish species living in the environment contaminated by metals.