[Xenopus] Survey: Health Monitoring & Pathogen Testing Practices in Xenopus laevis Labs

[Zhou, Coral Yishan]

Dear Xenopus Community,
We are reaching out to ask for your participation in a brief survey on health monitoring and pathogen testing practices in Xenopus research colonies. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete and your input will make a meaningful difference for our community.
The idea for this survey began when we realized that new Xenopus PIs have struggled with starting their colonies in institutions that have little or no experience working with Xenopus. We then discovered that there is currently no community-wide consensus on best practices for pathogen surveillance and health monitoring. This lack of standardization creates real challenges: labs are often uncertain how to develop SOPs, how to interpret positive test results, or how to work with veterinary staff when making critical decisions about colony health.
To address this, we have developed a short survey that asks about your lab’s current practices, including:

●      Whether your institution performs routine health monitoring of resident and/or quarantine animals, and which diagnostic methods are used (PCR, culture, fecal analysis, necropsy, etc.)

●      Which pathogens your colony has tested positive for, including Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, Mycobacteriumspp., Aeromonas hydrophila, Pseudocapillaroides xenopi, ranavirus, and others

●      How positive results were handled — including changes to quarantine practices, treatments, decontamination, and outcomes

●      Estimated annual colony mortality rates
We hope to discuss the results of this survey in person at the XRET (Xenopus Resources and Emerging Technologies) meeting in October. We plan to share the results of this discussion with the rest of the Xenopus community later in the year and eventually publish these results. We hope that this publication will give Xenopus researchers a citable resource to support their SOPs and inform conversations with their veterinary and IACUC teams.
The survey is anonymous. Please follow this link to participate:
https://redcap.vumc.org/surveys/?s=37KTFH38FCXMCWDY
Please respond by October 1, 2026. We encourage participation from all labs that work with Xenopus, regardless of the size of your colony or whether you currently have a formal health monitoring program in place — responses from labs that do not perform testing are equally valuable. Please also feel free to share this survey with colleagues who maintain Xenopus colonies.
Thank you in advance for your time and for helping us strengthen our community’s practices. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly.
Best regards,
Coral Zhou, PhD
Assistant Professor, University of Kansas Lawrence
Michael McKinney, DVM, DACLAM
Clinical Veterinarian and Assistant Professor, Vanderbilt University






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