Molecular identification of seahorse and pipefish species sold as dried seafood in China: A market-based survey to highlight the actual needs for a proper trade

Ling, Zeng; Armani, Andrea; Wen, Jing; Lin, Hongjun; Xu, Youhou; Fan, Sigang; Sun, Yulin; Yang, Changgen; Chen, Ziming; Chen, Daohai; Zhao, Juan; Li, Xuyan

doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2019.04.007

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Molecular identification of dried seahorse and pipe fish was done, that was sold on the Chinese market by using two mitochondrial COI and 16S rRNA genes and revealed the exploitation of representatives of family Syngnathids by illegal and not regulated trade. Previously, there is no record of sea horse species from the coastal water of Pakistan, the current study provides the evidence for the presence and range extension of H. kelloggi from the coastal water of Pakistan [18,19].…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 50%

First Record and Morphological Identification of the Seahorse Hippocampus kelloggi Great Seahorse Jordan and Snyder (1902) in Coastal Waters of Pakistan

Saher¹

2021

OFOAJ

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The first record of seahorse Hippocampus kelloggi commonly known as the great Seahorse from the coastal waters of Pakistan based on morphological and morphometric characteristics. The Seahorses belong to family Syngnathidae and about 50 species have been reported across the world. They have been found to inhabit coral reefs, seagrass beds and also coastal mangroves. All seahorse species (Hippocampus sp.) are vulnerable and according to the global conservation status of Hippocampus kelloggi is also among them. H. kelloggi is listed as data deficient since 2003 and then classified as IUCN Red List (http://www.iucnredlist.org) Category & Criteria: A2cd version 3.1 (2017). The Hippocampus kelloggi previously recorded from the Indo Pacific regions, including China; India; Indonesia; Japan; Malaysia; Philippines; Thailand; United Republic of Tanzania; Viet Nam. The current study confirmed the presence of H. kelloggi from the coastal waters of Pakistan.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 50%

First Record and Morphological Identification of the Seahorse Hippocampus kelloggi Great Seahorse Jordan and Snyder (1902) in Coastal Waters of Pakistan

Saher¹

2021

OFOAJ

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“…The family Syngnathidae consists of over 300 species of fish. Seahorses and pipefishes belong to this family, along with pipehorses and seadragons [1][2][3][4][5]. Many syngnathids live in highly vulnerable inshore marine habitats [6] such as shallow reefs and lagoons [7,8], mangroves [9], estuaries [7,10,11], seagrass beds and algal flats [12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In many regions, syngnathids are threatened by commercial overexploitation. Some are sold as curious or aquarium fish [2,5,8,9,14,18], but the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) market is the main consumer of wild syngnathids [12,14,18]. For example, the global annual seahorse trade exceeds 20 million individuals [19][20][21][22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A combination of morphological characteristics [6,30] and genetic methods [3,5,31] holds great promise in improving this situation. In particular, DNA barcoding (which involves the sequencing of a portion of the mitochondrial DNA COI gene) tends to have sufficient genetic variation to distinguish closely related species from each other [32][33][34].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, DNA barcoding (which involves the sequencing of a portion of the mitochondrial DNA COI gene) tends to have sufficient genetic variation to distinguish closely related species from each other [32][33][34]. This genetic marker was successfully used by Hou et al [31], Zeng et al [5] and Wang et al [35] to identify dried seahorse and pipefish samples to species level. In the present study, we used this marker to determine whether it provides enough resolution to determine the country of origin of illegally traded syngnathids confiscated at South Africa's largest airport.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Limitations of DNA barcoding in determining the origin of smuggled seahorses and pipefishes

Serite

Ntshudisane

Swart³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Seahorses and pipefishes are heavily exploited for use in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and less frequently for curio markets or as aquarium fish. A number of recent studies have used DNA barcoding to identify species sold at TCM markets in East Asia, but the usefulness of this approach in determining the region of origin remains poorly explored. Here, we generated DNA barcodes of dried seahorses and pipefishes destined for TCM that were confiscated at South Africa’s largest airport because they lacked the export permits required for the CITES-listed seahorses. These were compared with published sequences and new sequences generated for Mozambican seahorses, with the aim of determining whether it is possible to identify their country of origin. All pipefishes were identified as Syngnathoides biaculeatus, a widespread Indo-Pacific species, but the published sequence data did not provide sufficient resolution to identify the region of origin. The same was true of the majority of seahorses, which could not even be identified to species level because they clustered among an unresolved species complex whose sequences were published under the names Hippocampus kuda, H. fuscus and H. capensis. The presence of a few specimens of a second seahorse, H. camelopardalis, suggests that the shipment originated from East Africa because the range of this seahorse is centred around this region, but again, it was not possible to determine their country of origin. Even though seahorses and pipefishes have high levels of genetic population structure because of their low dispersal potential, DNA barcoding was only suitable to tentatively identify species, but not their region of origin. DNA barcoding is increasingly used to identify illegally traded wildlife, but our results show that more sophisticated methods are needed to monitor and police the trade in seahorses and pipefishes.

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Mini-DNA barcoding for the identification of commercial fish sold in the markets along the Taiwan Strait

et al. 2020

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Molecular identification of seahorse and pipefish species sold as dried seafood in China: A market-based survey to highlight the actual needs for a proper trade

Abstract: Molecular identification of seahorse and pipefish species sold as dried seafood in China: A market-based survey to highlight the actual needs for a proper trade, Food Control (2019),

Cited by 12 publications

References 41 publications

First Record and Morphological Identification of the Seahorse Hippocampus kelloggi Great Seahorse Jordan and Snyder (1902) in Coastal Waters of Pakistan

First Record and Morphological Identification of the Seahorse Hippocampus kelloggi Great Seahorse Jordan and Snyder (1902) in Coastal Waters of Pakistan

Limitations of DNA barcoding in determining the origin of smuggled seahorses and pipefishes

Mini-DNA barcoding for the identification of commercial fish sold in the markets along the Taiwan Strait

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