Recommended reporting standards for test accuracy studies of infectious diseases of finfish, amphibians, molluscs and crustaceans: the STRADAS-aquatic checklist

Diseases of Aquatic Organisms
By: , and 

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Abstract

Complete and transparent reporting of key elements of diagnostic accuracy studies for infectious diseases in cultured and wild aquatic animals benefits end-users of these tests, enabling the rational design of surveillance programs, the assessment of test results from clinical cases and comparisons of diagnostic test performance. Based on deficiencies in the Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy (STARD) guidelines identified in a prior finfish study (Gardner et al. 2014), we adapted the Standards for Reporting of Animal Diagnostic Accuracy Studies—paratuberculosis (STRADAS-paraTB) checklist of 25 reporting items to increase their relevance to finfish, amphibians, molluscs, and crustaceans and provided examples and explanations for each item. The checklist, known as STRADAS-aquatic, was developed and refined by an expert group of 14 transdisciplinary scientists with experience in test evaluation studies using field and experimental samples, in operation of reference laboratories for aquatic animal pathogens, and in development of international aquatic animal health policy. The main changes to the STRADAS-paraTB checklist were to nomenclature related to the species, the addition of guidelines for experimental challenge studies, and the designation of some items as relevant only to experimental studies and ante-mortem tests. We believe that adoption of these guidelines will improve reporting of primary studies of test accuracy for aquatic animal diseases and facilitate assessment of their fitness-for-purpose. Given the importance of diagnostic tests to underpin the Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement of the World Trade Organization, the principles outlined in this paper should be applied to other World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)-relevant species.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Recommended reporting standards for test accuracy studies of infectious diseases of finfish, amphibians, molluscs and crustaceans: the STRADAS-aquatic checklist
Series title Diseases of Aquatic Organisms
DOI 10.3354/dao02947
Volume 118
Issue 2
Year Published 2016
Language English
Publisher Inter-Research
Contributing office(s) Western Fisheries Research Center
Description 21 p.
First page 91
Last page 111
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
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