scholarly journals Aquatic Biota is Not Exempt from Coronavirus Infections: An Overview

Author(s):  
Gabriel Núñez-Nogueira ◽  
Andres Arturo Granados-Berber

Coronaviruses are pathogens recognized for having an animal origin, commonly associated with terrestrial environments. However, although in a few cases, there are reports of their presence in aquatic organisms like fish, frogs, waterfowls and marine mammals. None of these cases has led to human health effects when contact with these infected organisms has taken place, whether they are alive or dead. Aquatic birds seem to be the main group carrying and circulating these types of viruses among healthy bird populations. Although the route of infection for CoVID-19 by water or aquatic organisms has not yet been observed in the wild, the relevance of its study is highlighted because there are cases of other viral infections known to have been transferred to humans by aquatic biota. It is encouraging to know that aquatic species, such as fish, marine mammals, and amphibians, shows very few cases of coronaviruses and that some other aquatic animals may also be a possible source of cure or treatment against then, as some evidence with algae and marine sponges suggest.

Author(s):  
GABRIEL NÚÑEZ-NOGUEIRA ◽  
Andres Arturo Granados-Berber

Coronaviruses are pathogens recognized for having an animal origin and commonly associated with terrestrial environments. However, although in few cases, there are reports of their presence in aquatic organisms like fish, crustaceans, waterfowls and marine mammals. None of these cases have even led to human health effects, when contact with these infected organisms, whether they are alive or dead. Aquatic birds seem to be the main group in carrying and circulating these types of viruses in healthy bird populations and play an important role in these environments. Although the route of infection for CoVID-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) by water or aquatic organisms, has not yet been observed in the wild, the relevance of its study is highlighted , because there are cases of other viral infections (no coronavirus), which are known to have been transferred to the human by aquatic biota. What is even better, it becomes encouraging to know that aquatic species shows very few cases in fishes, marine mammals, and crustaceans, and some other aquatic animals may also be a possible source of cure or treatment against coronaviruses, as some evidence with algae and marine sponges suggests.


Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 2215
Author(s):  
Gabriel Núñez-Nogueira ◽  
Jesús Alberto Valentino-Álvarez ◽  
Andrés Arturo Granados-Berber ◽  
Eduardo Ramírez-Ayala ◽  
Francisco Alberto Zepeda-González ◽  
...  

Coronaviruses are pathogens recognized for having an animal origin, commonly associated with terrestrial environments. However, in a few cases, there are reports of their presence in aquatic organisms like fish, frogs, waterfowl, and marine mammals. None of these cases has led to human health effects when contact with these infected organisms has taken place, whether they were alive or dead. Aquatic birds seem to be the main group carrying and circulating these types of viruses among healthy bird populations. Although the route of infection for COVID-19 by water or aquatic organisms has not yet been observed in the wild, the relevance of its study is highlighted because there are cases of other viral infections known to have been transferred to humans by aquatic biota. It is encouraging to know that aquatic species, such as fish, marine mammals, and amphibians, show very few coronavirus cases. Some other aquatic animals may also be a possible source of cure or treatment against, as some evidence with algae and aquatic invertebrates suggest.


1981 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 203 ◽  
Author(s):  
AA Burbidge

Western swamp tortoise (Pseudemydura umbrina) was rediscovered in Western Australia in 1954. It is a relict species of a monotypic genus, of very restricted range and specialized habitat. Population was estimated to be 13 to 45 and decreasing at 1 of its 2 native reserves and to be 10 to 45 and static at the other reserve. It does not use permanent water, but lives and feeds in ephemeral winter swamps and spends the other 6 to 9 months of the year in refuges in leaf litter, under fallen branches or in holes in the ground, in contact with the soil. The tortoise is carnivorous and in the wild takes only live aquatic organisms. Captive adults will not take meat until they have starved for many months. Stomach of 1 female (Edward, pers. commun.) had aquatic crustaceans, chiefly Eulimnadia sp., with insects and insect larvae, mainly Coleoptera and Diptera. Study of faeces confirmed that observation had shown that small tadpoles and an aquatic earthworm (Eodrilus cornigravei) were eaten also. Reproduction, growth, activity relative to body and water temperature, and desiccation rate, were noted. One adult female tortoise was eaten by a fox. Foxes and bandicoots (Isoodon obesulus) eat eggs of other tortoises and would eat those of P. umbrina. Hatchlings may be eaten by large wading birds such as straw-necked ibis (Threskiornis spinicollis) and white-faced heron (Notophoyx novaehollandiae).


1995 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome O. Nriagu ◽  
Abdul Kabir

The widening use of chromium and its compounds by local industries has led to a growing concern about the effects of chromium contamination on the Canadian environment. This report summarizes the data on Canadian sources and the concentrations of chromium in air, water, sediments, soil, terrestrial wildlife and aquatic biota. It reviews what little is currently known about the cycling of chromium in Canadian ecoystems, and the need for measuring Cr(III) and Cr(VI) rather than total Cr in the environmental media is emphasized. The potential effects of elevated levels of chromium on plants, soil microorganisms, wildlife, and aquatic biota are discussed. The human health effects are not covered. The conclusion is reached that chromium pollution has become a threat to Canadian ecosystems, especially at the local scale where the ambient chromium concentrations in some surface waters, sediments, and soils are now close to or above the toxicity threshold for a number of the more sensistive organisms.Key words: chromium pollution, chromium toxicity, chromium chemistry, chromium emission, bioaccumulation of chromium.


2008 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
LM. Gomiero ◽  
AG. Manzatto ◽  
FMS. Braga

The purpose of this study was to characterize the diet of the fish Brycon opalinus (Characidae) seasonally and locally, allowing for the determination of its food items and trophic relations with the aquatic and terrestrial environments. The study area encompasses three rivers (Paraibuna, Ipiranga and Grande) in the basin of the Paraibuna, southeast Brazil. Twelve monthly collections were made from January to December 2004. The degree of stomachic repletion and of accumulated visceral fat was analyzed, as was the intestinal length in each class of total length. The frequency of occurrence and the degree of food preference (DFP) of the food items of Brycon opalinus were determined by separating the vegetal and animal items, autochthonous and allochthonous, by insect order and vegetal family consumed. The frequency of occurrence of items of animal origin was found to be equivalent to that of vegetal origin, thus characterizing the omnivorism of Brycon opalinus feeding.


2009 ◽  
Vol 296 (2) ◽  
pp. R257-R264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olli Arjamaa ◽  
Mikko Nikinmaa

The possibility that natriuretic peptides' effects are important in hypoxia responses of vertebrates is reviewed. Both the transcription and release of natriuretic peptides are affected by oxygen tension. Furthermore, many of the effects observed in hypoxia, such as diuresis and a reduction of plasma volume, are also caused by treatment of the animal with natriuretic peptides. Also, several clinical observations about changes in natriuretic peptide levels in, e.g., sleep apnea and cyanotic congenital heart disease, are consistent with the idea that hypoxia is involved in the etiology of conditions, in which natriuretic peptide levels increase. Virtually all published information on the relationship between oxygen and natriuretic peptides is based on human studies. Because hypoxic conditions are more common in aquatic than terrestrial environments, future studies about the possible role of natriuretic peptides in hypoxia, as well as the role of hypoxia in the evolution of natriuretic peptides, including the different subtypes, should increasingly involve also aquatic organisms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (15) ◽  
pp. 8305
Author(s):  
Chisato Kataoka ◽  
Shosaku Kashiwada

The immunotoxic effects of some anthropogenic pollutants on aquatic organisms are among the causes of concern over the presence of these pollutants in the marine environment. The immune system is part of an organism’s biological defense necessarily for homeostasis. Thus, the immunotoxicological impacts on aquatic organisms are important to understand the effects of pollutant chemicals in the aquatic ecosystem. When aquatic organisms are exposed to pollutant chemicals with immunotoxicity, it results in poor health. In addition, aquatic organisms are exposed to pathogenic bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi. Exposure to pollutant chemicals has reportedly caused aquatic organisms to show various immunotoxic symptoms such as histological changes of lymphoid tissue, changes of immune functionality and the distribution of immune cells, and changes in the resistance of organisms to infection by pathogens. Alterations of immune systems by contaminants can therefore lead to the deaths of individual organisms, increase the general risk of infections by pathogens, and probably decrease the populations of some species. This review introduced the immunotoxicological impact of pollutant chemicals in aquatic organisms, including invertebrates, fish, amphibians, and marine mammals; described typical biomarkers used in aquatic immunotoxicological studies; and then, discussed the current issues on ecological risk assessment and how to address ecological risk assessment through immunotoxicology. Moreover, the usefulness of the population growth rate to estimate the immunotoxicological impact of pollution chemicals was proposed.


PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e2819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie M. Rosales ◽  
Rebecca L. Vega Thurber

Diseases of marine mammals can be difficult to diagnose because of their life history and protected status. Stranded marine mammals have been a particularly useful resource to discover and comprehend the diseases that plague these top predators. Additionally, advancements in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) has contributed to the discovery of novel pathogens in marine mammals. In this study, we use a combination of HTS and stranded harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) to better understand a known and unknown brain disease. To do this, we used transcriptomics to evaluate brain tissues from seven neonatal harbor seals that expired from an unknown cause of death (UCD) and compared them to four neonatal harbor seals that had confirmed phocine herpesvirus (PhV-1) infections in the brain. Comparing the two disease states we found that UCD animals showed a significant abundance of fatty acid metabolic transcripts in their brain tissue, thus we speculate that a fatty acid metabolic dysregulation contributed to the death of these animals. Furthermore, we were able to describe the response of four young harbor seals with PhV-1 infections in the brain. PhV-1 infected animals showed a significant ability to mount an innate and adaptive immune response, especially to combat viral infections. Our data also suggests that PhV-1 can hijack host pathways for DNA packaging and exocytosis. This is the first study to use transcriptomics in marine mammals to understand host and viral interactions and assess the death of stranded marine mammals with an unknown disease. Furthermore, we show the value of applying transcriptomics on stranded marine mammals for disease characterization.


Trudy VNIRO ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 181 ◽  
pp. 16-32
Author(s):  
A.A. Bajtalyuk ◽  
◽  
A.V. Adrianov ◽  
V.N. Akulin ◽  
I.V. Dyujzen ◽  
...  

In 2018, in the Scientific and Educational Complex “Primorsky Oceanarium” of the National Scientific Center for Marine Biology (NSCMB) FEB RAS, a Collective Use Center (CUC) was created with scientific equipment, coastal and near-shore infrastructure, unique facilities and biological materials. In its function, this Center is a unit for cooperation between fishery science and academic science in marine biotechnology (MBC). It was organized using principles of shared access of participants to marine areas, coastal research stations, biological and instrumental basis of Marine Mammals Research facility in “Primorsky Oceanarium” MBC structure in the form of CUC can be used in addressing a wide range of tasks in implementing knowledge intensive marine biotechnologies, upgrading bionic methods in the study of aquatic organisms, carrying out field studies and tests on hydroacoustic, electrical, fishing gear and other manipulators for moving behavior of aquatic organisms and their adaptation to fishing activity. The first MBC joint research results are shown. Those studies include research on acoustic and kinematic activity and characteristics of signals of marine mammals and fish, hydroacoustic emitters testing for controlling fish behavior, experimental studies on reflective properties of aquatic irganisms, and influence of attracting and repelling hydroacoustic emitters on fish behavior in cages using modern instrumental control and observation tools.


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