Biosensors for the assessment of fish health: a review

Methods that can be used to check the health of fish, determine their physiological condition and detect abnormalities at an early stage, have been attracting recent attention. The health of fish can be determined by the assessment of stress responses, prediction of spawning time, and highly sensitive detection of bacteria that cause diseases in fish, etc. However, it can be difficult to accurately measure these parameters due to factors such as sampling errors, uncontrollable aquaculture conditions and unsound methodological approaches. Also, the methods currently used are time-consuming and may involve complicated processes. Thus, there is a high demand for novel approaches for the assessment of fish health. We have thus focused on the development of a biosensor to measure target factors of fish health by combining biocatalytics and electronics technology. We believe that this technology can greatly improve the assessment of the health of fish produced for consumption. In this article, we described various biosensors that can both rapidly and easily measure indicators of fish health. Future applications of these techniques are also discussed.