About the Book

Topics in Aquatic Animal Health was developed by David E. Starling, D.V.M., an Associate Teaching Professor at Iowa State University and President of Aqueterinary Services®, P.C to address several needs. After teaching the one-credit course, Introduction to Aquatic Animal Medicine, at Iowa State University for over two decades, Dr. Starling wanted to organize, update, and expand the content that was presented to his students. He had observed that students taking the course had a strong interest in immunology and nutrition, which were not covered in the one-hour elective previously, and he recognized the need to include information on additional topic areas for these students. Since the text would be published open access online as well, Dr. Starling wanted to include supplementary content, references, and examples from his own practice to support continued student engagement with the text post-graduation.

By developing an all-inclusive textbook for his course, Dr. Starling was able to provide additional resources for students at no cost, connect the topics taught in BMS-401 to real-life scenarios, and develop a resource which could be easily updated and revised over time to incorporate the most current knowledge for practitioners in the field.

This text was funded with support from the Miller Open Education Mini-Grant Program with additional support from the Biomedical Sciences department in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State University.

About the Course

The goal of this open educational resource is to provide free instructional materials for the course Introduction to Aquatic Animal Medicine, BMS/ A ECL 401, a course which has been taught as a one-hour elective at the Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine since 1998.

Introduction to Aquatic Animal Medicine provides fundamental knowledge about aquatic animals (primarily fish) to Veterinary students and senior undergraduates majoring in Animal Ecology, with preference given to the Pre-Vet students in Animal Ecology. Each chapter arises from the content of a single lecture. Over the more than twenty years of the class’s history, the lectures have been offered by faculty in both veterinary medicine and animal ecology.

Note: The class has associated wet labs and field trips for practical aspects. The practical segments are not part of this project.

Continuing development

As you may have noticed, there are some gaps in the numbering for the book’s current chapters. This was done to leave room for additional chapters which are currently under development with support from educators, students, and practitioners in the field. Chapters which are under development include:

• Chapter 4: Parasitology
• Chapter 5: Immunology
• Chapter 8: Reproduction
• Chapter 9: Anesthesia and Sedation
• Chapter 12: Biosecurity

As these chapters are completed and undergo a final peer review and revision process, they will be added to the live webbook.