Presence of Anisakid Larvae in the European Anchovy, Engraulis encrasicolus, Fished Off the Tyrrhenian Coast of Central Italy

Abstract

A survey was carried out to determine the prevalence of anisakid nematode larvae in European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) fished off the Tyrrhenian coast of central Italy. From February through July 2012, 1,490 specimens of E. encrasicolus caught in three different fishing areas (off Civitavecchia, Anzio, and Gaeta in the northern, central, and southern Lazio region of Italy, respectively) were tested for the presence of anisakid larvae, both by visual microscopic inspection and enzymatic digestion. In each of the three fishing areas, each of two sampling times produced 250 fish (with the exception of one sampling time in Gaeta that produced 240 fish). Larvae of the family Anisakidae were detected with an overall estimated prevalence of 2.3%, and each positive fish harbored a single larva. No anisakid larvae were detected in fish caught off Gaeta. Fish with larvae were significantly longer (standard length) than fish without larvae. Twenty-six larvae (74.3%) were detected by visual inspection of the viscera, eight larvae (22.8%) were detected by visual inspection of the fillets, and one larva (2.8%) was detected after digestion of pooled fillets. Molecular analysis to fully characterize the 35 detected larvae revealed 15 specimens of Anisakis pegreffii, 10 specimens of Hysterothylacium aduncum, and one hybrid genotype of A. pegreffii × Anisakis simplex. For nine specimens, no visible product was obtained after PCR amplification. The overall prevalence for A. pegreffii and H. aduncum was 1.0 and 0.7%, respectively. A comparison between fishes harboring A. pegreffii larvae and those harboring H. aduncum revealed that those with A. pegreffii were significantly heavier. The prevalence of anisakid larvae found in the present study is lower then that reported previously in E. encrasicolus collected in the Mediterranean Sea.

Survey of Anisakis sp. and Hysterothylacium sp. in sardines and anchovies from the North Adriatic Sea

“…The raphidascaridiid Hysterothylacium aduncum has been detected in sardines and anchovies analysed, with higher values compared to previous indications in anchovies from Tyrrhenian coasts (De Liberato et al, 2013), probably because of the implementation with Baermann inspection in this study.…”

“…The digestion of Hysterothylacium spp. amplicons yielded a pattern of two bands of 730 bp and 350 bp at HinfI digestion and four bands of 350 bp, 280 bp, 180 bp and 150 bp at HhaI digestion, as described in De Liberato et al (2013). Representative gel of enzymatic digestion is reported in Fig.…”

“…and Hysterothylacium spp. have been reported in sardines and anchovies from the Mediterranean basin De Liberato et al, 2013;Mladineo et al, 2012;Mladineo and Poljak, 2013;Rello et al, 2009;Serracca et al, 2014), describing a considerable variable prevalence of Anisakis spp. in anchovies and sardines originating from different fishing areas, with higher values in the Croatian Adriatic coasts.…”

Environmental variables and definitive host distribution: a habitat suitability modelling for endohelminth parasites in the marine realm

“…the ISI Web of Knowledge online database was searched according to a set of search terms ( Anisakis , Anisakid) to assess the novel research articles in the field that have been published since 2011 and extract specific locality records. In total, 101 publications were considered in the present model916171822364748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135…”

Putative hybrids between two Anisakis cryptic species: Molecular genotyping using High Resolution Melting

“…The evidence listed are congruent with the numerous studies on the presence of Anisakis spp. in fishes of the Mediterranean sea, reporting A. pegreffii as the most widespread species, often with high prevalence values in several paratenic hosts (De Liberato et al, 2013;Meloni et al, 2011), followed by occasional reports of A. physeteris (Cavallero et al, 2012), A. typica and A. simplex s.s., the latter probably due to the migration of pelagic fishes from the Atlantic Ocean (Mattiucci et al, 2004).…”