Necropsy: The Gill Biopsy

 

For a gill biopsy, lift up the operculum, and with a clean pair of scissors, carefully snip off no more than 2-3mm of primary lamellae from the first gill arch.

As with skin scrapes, with practice, gill biopsies can be performed on live fish to sample a population. Refer to the section of this presentation called "Sample Cases" to view actual gill biopsies under the microscope

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Fish gills are a truly amazing organ system. They serve respiratory, excretory, osmoregulatory and ion uptake functions. Water flows across the gill arches from the mouth through the opercular chamber shown here.

 

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Gill rakers, strain the water before passing over the lamellar surface. The water flows across the secondary lamellae (gas exchange surface in opposite direction to the blood flow). This counter current exchange [definable button] allows for greatly enhanced exchange efficiency between the gill respiratory surface and the water.
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Blood Flow
Across respiratory Surface

In this scanning electron micrograph of a gill cast, you can view simulated blood flow from the afferent branchial artery (not shown) up the afferent lamellar artery across the secondary lamellous, down the efferent lamellar artery, and return to the efferent brancial artery (not shown).

 

 

 

 

 
 
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