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Variation in the levels of anisakid infection in the European anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus (Linnaeus) from the Bay of Biscay during the period 2000–2023 (ICES Subarea 8)

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Abstract

The European anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus is one of the most important commercial species in the Bay of Biscay (ICES Subarea 8), and our analysis focused on the analysis of the temporal mean abundance, prevalence, and intensity of Anisakis spp. larvae species in anchovies from ICES Subarea 8 in the years 2000, 2001, 2014–2016, and 2019–2023. Prevalence in adult individuals of anchovy was only 1% in 2000 but increased to 90% in 2014. Since 2015, the prevalence has decreased, and the number of individuals affected in 2023 accounted for 17.6%. The mean abundance showed a similar trend, with a peak of 3.79 nematodes/anchovy in 2014, falling to 0.21 in 2023. The species A. simplex sensu stricto and A. pegreffii were identified by PCR/SANGER sequencing and PCR/RLFP techniques in 2019 and 2020. Anisakis simplex (s.s.) was the most abundant species and, according to the results returned by these two techniques, it accounted for an average of 62.4% and 52.1% of total nematodes in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The results of studies monitoring infection levels in anchovies showed that the mean abundance and prevalence changed over the course of the study period and that the proportion of different species of Anisakis is also subject to variation from year to year.

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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is contribution No. 1190 from AZTI, Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA). We are very grateful to all the participants in the ANIFEMP project who helped collect and analyse samples.

Funding

This study was funded by the Directorate of Fisheries and Aquaculture of the Basque Government (Department of Economic Development, Infrastructures and Environment – Vice Dept. of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Policies, Directorate of Fisheries and Aquaculture), project ANIFEMP (grant number 00001-IRB2018-33) and by the European Union project (Urban Klima 2050) from the LIFE programme (grant number LIFE 18 IPC 000001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. AZTI, Marine Research, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Txatxarramendi Ugartea Z/G, 48395, Sukarrieta, Bizkaia, Spain

    Guzmán Díez, Maria Santos, Guillermo Boyra, Guillem Chust, Marina Santurtún, Arantza Maceira, Iñaki Mendibil, Elisabette Bilbao & Carmen Abaroa

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  1. Guzmán Díez
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Contributions

GD, GB, MS, GC and MS contributed to the conception and design of the study. Gb and MS collected, the samples AM and CA analysed the samples and EB and IM performed the genetic analysis. GD, GB and MS analysed the data, GD wrote the manuscript and carried out substantial revisions of the manuscript. All the authors approved the submitted version.

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Correspondence to Guzmán Díez.

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No approval of research ethics committees was required to accomplish the goals of this study because parasitological analysis was conducted with commercial fish species obtained from fish markets and scientific surveys.

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Díez, G., Santos, M., Boyra, G. et al. Variation in the levels of anisakid infection in the European anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus (Linnaeus) from the Bay of Biscay during the period 2000–2023 (ICES Subarea 8). Parasitol Res 123, 95 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-023-08096-8

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