scholarly journals Bioinformatics Approach to Mitigate Mislabeling in EU Seafood Market and Protect Consumer Health

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 7497
Author(s):  
Gabriella Vindigni ◽  
Alfredo Pulvirenti ◽  
Salvatore Alaimo ◽  
Clara Monaco ◽  
Daniela Spina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Barcoding ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Molecular Techniques ◽  
Consumer Information ◽  
Fish Market ◽  
Fishery Policy ◽  
Fisheries Policy ◽  
Consumer Interests ◽  
Zoonotic Parasites

Fisheries products are some of the most traded commodities world-wide and the potential for fraud is a serious concern. Fish fraud represents a threat to human health and poses serious concerns due to the consumption of toxins, highly allergenic species, contaminates or zoonotic parasites, which may be present in substituted fish. The substitution of more expensive fish by cheaper species, with similar morphological characteristics but different origins, reflects the need for greater transparency and traceability upon which which the security of the entire seafood value-chain depends. Even though EU regulations have made significant progress in consumer information by stringent labelling requirements, fraud is still widespread. Many molecular techniques such as DNA barcoding provide valuable support to enhance the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in the protection of consumer interests by unequivocally detecting any kind of fraud. This paper aims to highlight both the engagement of EU fishery policy and the opportunity offered by new biotechnology instruments to mitigate the growing fraud in the globalized fish market and to enforce the food security system to protect consumers’ health. In this paper, after a presentation of EU rules on fish labeling and a general overview on the current state of the global fish market, we discuss the public health implications and the opportunities offered by several techniques based on genetics, reporting a case study to show the efficacy of the DNA barcoding methodology in assessing fish traceability and identification, comparing different species of the Epinephelus genus, Mottled Grouper (Mycteroperca rubra) and Wreckfish (Polyprion americanus), often improperly sold with the commercial name of “grouper”.

Fish Price Determination Around Lake Victoria, Tanzania: Analysis of Factors Affecting Fish Landing Price

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 348-363
Author(s):  
Damian Boniface Sambuo ◽  
Stephen Kirama ◽  
Kitala Malamsha
Keyword(s):  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Regulatory Body ◽  
Price Determination ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Fish Market ◽  
Fishery Policy ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Performance

Determination of fish landing price is important, as the same contributes to the structure, conduct and performance of the fish market in Lake Victoria. Determination of relevant landing price is a gap to console between fishermen, agents (middlemen), processors and the government. The main objective of this study was therefore to examine fish price determination. Specifically, to examine the methods for fish price determination and analyse factors that affect fish landing price in Lake Victoria, a cross-sectional design was employed, and 300 respondents were randomly selected from two district councils, namely, Sengerema and Buchosa. Both qualitative and quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and inferential analysis. Findings show that landing price is determined through formal negotiation with processors, consultation with other traders, informal negotiation with buyers and Beach Management Unit (BMU). The study concluded that these are the common methods used to determine landing prices. Also, distance from fishing to onshore landing centres, market information channels, age and experiences of the fishermen are the factors significantly found affecting landing price. It is recommended that the mechanism for setting up fishery price, fish market structure, fishery information and the formation of fishery regulatory body needs fishery policy and sector reforms that mark the determination of fish landing price.

scholarly journals Characterization of Five New Earthworm Mitogenomes (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae): Mitochondrial Phylogeny of Lumbricidae

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 580
Author(s):  
Hongyi Liu ◽  
Yufeng Zhang ◽  
Wei Xu ◽  
Yu Fang ◽  
Honghua Ruan
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Trees ◽  
Mitochondrial Gene ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Molecular Techniques ◽  
Phylogenetic Studies ◽  
Octolasion Tyrtaeum ◽  
Eisenia Nordenskioldi ◽  
Novel Strategy

Identification based on conventional morphological characteristics is typically difficult and time-consuming. The development of molecular techniques provides a novel strategy that relies on specific mitochondrial gene fragments to conduct authentication. For this study, five newly sequenced partial mitogenomes of earthworms (Bimastos parvus, Dendrobaena octaedra, Eisenia andrei, Eisenia nordenskioldi, and Octolasion tyrtaeum) with lengths ranging from 14,977 to 15,715 were presented. Each mitogenome possessed a putative control region that resided between tRNA-Arg and tRNA-His. All of the PCGs were under negative selection according to the value of Ka/Ks. The phylogenetic trees supported the classification of Eisenia and Lumbricus; however, the trees based on cox1 did not. Through various comparisons, it was determined that cox1 fragments might be more suitable for molecular identification. These results lay the foundation for further phylogenetic studies on Lumbricidae.

scholarly journals Genetic and Morphological Characterization of Mangifera indica L. Growing in Egypt

HortScience ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (9) ◽  
pp. 1266-1270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nader R. Abdelsalam ◽  
Hayssam M. Ali ◽  
Mohamed Z.M. Salem ◽  
Elsayed G. Ibrahem ◽  
Mohamed S. Elshikh
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Mangifera Indica ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Morphological Characterization ◽  
Molecular Techniques ◽  
Germplasm Management ◽  
Fruit Crops ◽  
The Family ◽  
High Diversity

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is a fruit crops belong to the family Anacardiaceae and is the oldest cultivated tree worldwide. Cultivars maintained in Egypt have not been investigated previously. Mango was first brought to Egypt from South Asia. Morphological and molecular techniques were used to identify the genetic diversity within 28 mango cultivars. SSR and EST-SSR were used for optimizing germplasm management of mango cultivars. Significant variations were observed in morphological characteristics and genetic polymorphism, as they ranged from 0.71% to 100%. High diversity was confirmed as a pattern of morphological and genotypes data. Data from the present study may be used to calculate the mango relationship and diversity currently grown in Egypt.

DNA Barcoding Revealed Mislabeling and Potential Health Concerns with Roasted Fish Products Sold across China

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (7) ◽  
pp. 1200-1209 ◽  
Author(s):  
XIONG XIONG ◽  
FANGYING YUAN ◽  
MANHONG HUANG ◽  
LIXIA LU ◽  
XIAOHUI XIONG ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Barcoding ◽  
Fish Species ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Economic Loss ◽  
High Price ◽  
Snack Food ◽  
Fish Fillet ◽  
Potential Health ◽  
Fish Products ◽  
Republic Of China

ABSTRACTRoasted fish fillet is a popular snack food in the People's Republic of China, and the market appeal can be reflected by the high price, which exceeds 330 RMB/kg in some cases. However, the labeled fish common name generally cannot be connected with a particular species, and the processing treatments make it a challenging task to identify fish species based on morphological characteristics. This study used full DNA barcoding and mini-DNA barcoding for species identification of 202 specimens sorted from 64 roasted fish fillet products sold across China, which belonged to 32 distinct brands and claimed 16 fish common names on the label. Given the absence of a harmonization in defining these common names in China, scientific literature and the Latin-Chinese dictionary of fish names (http://fishdb.sinica.edu.tw/) were consulted to define at least the family for each common name, and an identified species outside the expected family was determined to be mislabeled. Results highlighted a high mislabeling rate of 75.5%. Even worse, fish species were identified as belonging to multiple families, not only from several products of the same brand under the same common name but also from several specimens sorted from the same product. Moreover, a health issue was highlighted by the identification of toxic Tetraodontidae species from one product. To protect the consumers from economic loss and even health risks, we recommended amendments to existing legislation and the compilation of a list of acceptable market names for fish species in China. Meanwhile, DNA barcoding is a powerful tool in fish forensics, and we recommended the use of this technique to assure the accurate species labeling of fish products.HIGHLIGHTS

Morphological characteristics and DNA barcoding of Pampus echinogaster (Basilewsky, 1855)

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (12) ◽  
pp. 18-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Li ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Tianxiang Gao ◽  
Zhiqiang Han ◽  
Longshan Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Barcoding ◽  
Morphological Characteristics

scholarly journals Studies on some fish parasites of public health importance in the southern area of Saudi Arabia

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mokhtar Ibrahim Khalil ◽  
Ismail Saad El-Shahawy ◽  
Hussein Saad Abdelkader
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Human Infection ◽  
Fish Parasites ◽  
Public Health Importance ◽  
Compression Technique ◽  
Seafood Products ◽  
Haplorchis Pumilio ◽  
Zoonotic Parasites

The present study was the first attempt to survey the diversity of fish zoonotic parasites in the southern region of Saudi Arabia, particularly the Najran area, from October 2012 to October 2013. Approximately 163 fish representing seven species (two of freshwater fish and five of marine fish) were examined for fish-borne trematode metacercariae using the compression technique, and for zoonotic nematode larvae. Adult flukes were obtained from cats experimentally infected with the metacercariae on day 25 post-infection The prevalence of each parasite species was recorded. The parasites found belonged to two taxa: Digenea (Heterophyes heterophyes and Haplorchis pumilio) in muscle tissue; and nematodes (larvae of Capillaria sp.) in the digestive tract. The morphological characteristics of the fish-borne trematode metacercariae and their experimentally obtained adults were described. This is the first report of these parasites in fish in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, Myripristis murdjan presented higher prevalence of Capillaria sp. infection (22.7%), while Haplorchis pumilio was the dominant metacercarial species (7.9%). Although the number of documented cases continues to increase, the overall risk of human infection is slight. The increasing exploitation of the marine environment by humans and the tendency to reduce cooking times when preparing seafood products both increase the chances of becoming infected with these parasites. Furthermore, our results indicate that certain fish production systems are at risk of presenting fish zoonotic parasites, and that control approaches will benefit from understanding these risk factors.

Paralarval and juvenile stages as a proxy for cephalopod diversity in the Juan Fernández and Desventuradas ecoregion, southeast Paific Ocean

2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-280
Author(s):  
Sergio A Carrasco ◽  
Andrea I Varela ◽  
Christian M Ibáñez ◽  
Javier Sellanes ◽  
Martin Thiel
Keyword(s):  
Dna Barcoding ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Oceanic Islands ◽  
Life Stages ◽  
Early Life Stages ◽  
Marine Park ◽  
Coi Sequences ◽  
Juan Fernández Archipelago

Southeast Pacific (SEP) oceanic islands are characterized by their extreme isolation and high degree of endemism. To date, most research has focused on species composition and distributions, with little information available on early life stages. In this study, we provide new records of early life stages of cephalopods based on planktonic collections carried out during October and November 2016 around three oceanic islands: San Félix, San Ambrosio (Desventuradas Islands; 26.3°S, 79.8°W), and Alejandro Selkirk (Juan Fernández Archipelago; 33.7°S, 80.7°W), which are part of the Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park, the largest marine park in the Americas. Twenty-four paralarvae and juveniles were obtained and identified based on morphological characteristics [i.e., mantle length (ML), chromatophore patterns, number and shape of suckers on arms and tentacles] and DNA barcoding [i.e., mitochondrial Cytochrome c Oxidase subunit I (COI) sequences]. Six families were recorded, including Brachioteuthidae, Onychoteuthidae, Tremoctopodidae, Octopodidae, Octopoteuthidae, and Lycoteuthidae. Most individuals (92%) corresponded to larger stages of 4–12 mm ML (Brachioteuthidae, Onychoteuthidae, Tremoctopodidae, and Lycoteuthidae), and 8% were newly hatched paralarvae of around 1 mm ML (Octopodidae and Octopoteuthidae). The DNA barcoding approach validated the identity of Brachioteuthis sp., Onykia aff. robsoni , Octopus mimus, and Tremoctopus sp., with two specific identities (Octopoteuthidae and Lycoteuthis sp.) remaining to be evaluated. ese records provide new information on cephalopod diversity and distribution around SEP islands, adding to the current knowledge about zoogeographic patterns of this group and evidencing their potential relationships with continental or nearby habitats.

scholarly journals Descriptions of diplostomid metacercariae (Digenea: Diplostomidae) from freshwater fishes in the Tshwane area

2013 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esmey B.E. Moema ◽  
Pieter H. King ◽  
Johnny N. Rakgole ◽  
Chantélle Baker
Keyword(s):  
Clarias Gariepinus ◽  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Molecular Techniques ◽  
Cranial Cavity ◽  
Base Pairs ◽  
Parasitic Species ◽  
Larval Stages ◽  
Digenetic Trematodes ◽  
Genomic Regions

The metacercarial (larval) stages of diplostomid digeneans are known to inhabit freshwater fish, causing tissue damage in the process. Due to their widespread diversity, little is known about their life cycle. The classification of these parasitic stages to the species level using only the morphology is very challenging due to the lack of genitalia; they are regarded to be the most important structures in the identification of these organisms. In this study, additional morphological information through light and scanning electron microscopy is given for two different diplostomids found in the cranial cavity of Clarias gariepinus and the vitreous chambers of Tilapia sparrmanii and Pseudocrenilabrus philander. The diplostomid metacercaria inhabiting the cranial cavity of Clarias gariepinus was morphologically identified as Diplostomulum (Tylodelphys) mashonenseand an unknown metacercaria of the genus Diplostomumwas found in the vitreous chambers of Pseudocrenilabrus philander and Tilapia sparrmanii. Both parasitic species’ 28S recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid genomic regions were successfully amplified using Dig 125/1500R primer pairs. The assay yielded a product of approximately 1300 base pairs as seen on the gel images. There were 14 nucleotide differences over the entire analysed sequences resulting in a 1.1% (14/1273) nucleotide difference. In line with the morphological characteristics of these parasites, there seemed to be a slight difference in their genetic makeup. The application of molecular techniques on digenetic trematodes seems very promising and may yield great potential in future descriptions of morphologically similar parasitic species.

scholarly journals Parasite fauna of Lutjanus synagris commercialized in the fish market from Bragança-PA, Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalino da Costa Sousa ◽  
Daiana Silva Dos Santos ◽  
Silmara Rosa Silva ◽  
Alexandre Vaz Da Silva ◽  
Jucimauro de Araújo P. Junior ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Marine Fish ◽  
Parasite Fauna ◽  
Mean Intensity ◽  
Taxonomic Level ◽  
Relative Dominance ◽  
Fish Market ◽  
Total Prevalence ◽  
Low Diversity ◽  
Zoonotic Parasites

Studies about the parasite fauna of marine fish highlights as an important problem for public health with zoonotic parasites or affecting the fish quality. Thus, this study evaluated the parasite fauna of Lutjanus synagris commercialized in the fish market from Bragança-PA. In laboratory, 58 fish were measured, weighted and conducted to parasitological analysis to determine parasitological indexes and relative dominance. Every parasite was fixed and identified until to the lowest taxonomic level. Through the parasitological analysis, it found Cymothoidae, Digenea, Cucullanus sp. and Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) sp., with total prevalence 67.24%. Digenea showed the highest prevalence and mean intensity values. For nematode, Cucullanus sp. obtained the greater prevalence and relative dominance, while Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus) sp. showed the greater mean intensity and abundance. Cymothoidae showed the lowest prevalence and mean intensity values. As conclusion, the parasite fauna of L. synagris has been noted with low diversity, reporting the nematode occurrence Procamallanus (Spirocamallanus).

scholarly journals Investigation of oak tree decline in the Auckland region

2007 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 297-303
Author(s):  
M. Braithwaite ◽  
C. Inglis ◽  
M.A. Dick ◽  
T.D. Ramsfield ◽  
N.W. Waipara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Characteristics ◽  
Molecular Techniques ◽  
Tree Decline ◽  
New Host ◽  
Disease Symptoms ◽  
Oak Trees ◽  
Oak Tree ◽  
Intensive Investigation ◽  
Biochemical Testing ◽  
Branch Dieback

Concern about the poor health of oak trees in Auckland was raised in 2001 An intensive investigation of oak trees showing symptoms of decline (twig and branch dieback epicormic growth trunk cankers bark loss and tree death) was conducted in the Auckland area during 2006 Disease symptoms on trees at 13 sites were documented and samples of leaves stems trunks roots and soil collected Soil samples were tested for the presence of soilborne fungi using baiting techniques Fungi and bacteria from plant tissues and soil were identified using either morphological characteristics biochemical testing or molecular techniques The investigation resulted in a range of fungi and bacteria being identified One fungus new to New Zealand was detected and several new host associations observed No particular organism was implicated as the cause of the oak decline but several fungi and bacteria were likely contributors to the tree decline and death in Auckland

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