Abstract
Contamination of aquatic systems mainly by urbanization and poor sanitation, deficient or lack of wastewater treatments, dumping of solid residues, and run off has led to the presence of particles, including manmade polymers, in tissues of many marine and freshwater species. In this study, the prevalence of microplastics (MPs) in freshwater fish from farmed and natural sources was investigated. Oreochromis niloticus from aquaculture farms in the Huila region in Colombia, and two local species (Prochilodus magdalenae and Pimelodus grosskopfii), naturally present in surface waters were sampled. Of the particles identified, fragments were the predominant type in the three tissue types (stomach, gill, and flesh) derived from farmed and natural fishes. MicroFT-IR spectroscopy was conducted on 208 randomly selected samples, with 22% of particles identified as MPs based on spectra with a match rate ≥ 70%. A total of 53% of identified particles corresponded to cellophane/cellulose, the most abundant particle found in all fish. Not all fish contained MPs: 44% of Oreochromis farmed fish contained MPs, while 75% of natural source fish contained MPs in any of its tissues. Overall, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyester (PES), and polyethylene (PE) were the prevalent MPs found in the freshwater fish. A broader variety of polymer types was observed in farmed fish. The edible flesh part of fish presented the lower prevalence of MPs compared to gill and stomach (gut), with gut displaying a higher frequency and diversity of MPs. This preliminary study suggests that the incidence and type of MPs varies in farmed verses natural fish sources as well as across different tissue types, with significantly less detected within the edible flesh tissues compared with stomach and gill tissues.
Highlights
There has been a worldwide increase of the concern surrounding microplastics (MPs), particles of a size smaller than or equal to 5mm (Lusher et al 2017), about their impacts on the environment as well as entering the food chain (Rochman et al 2015; Van Cauwenberghe & Janssen. 2014) due to its availability for ingestion to a wide range of aquatic organisms
Increasing numbers of studies report their presence in the water column, sediments, and beaches (Bordós et al 2019) as well as in different animal species and variety of fish tissues around the world (Neves et al 2015; Biginagwa et al 2016; Nadal et al 2016; Jabeen et al 2017; Pazos et al 2017; Foley et al 2018)
It is yet to be fully elucidated how such MPs reach different aquatic organisms and their tissues, what their fate and biological impacts may be within these, or if there is a relationship between the chemical composition of the ingested MPs and the species that ingest them
Summary
There has been a worldwide increase of the concern surrounding microplastics (MPs), particles of a size smaller than or equal to 5mm (Lusher et al 2017), about their impacts on the environment as well as entering the food chain (Rochman et al 2015; Van Cauwenberghe & Janssen. 2014) due to its availability for ingestion to a wide range of aquatic organisms. The distribution of this resource is not equitable throughout the territory, since there are zones of greater exploitation and water demand (Sánchez et al 2007)(Sánchez Triana, Ahmed, Awe, & World, 2007b)(Sánchez Triana et al 2007b)(Sánchez Triana et al 2007b) Among the main uses are agriculture and fish farming The latter involves an estimated export of Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)(for 2018) of 46.53 tons of fresh fish, with main destinations being USA and Canada (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística, 2019), countries where the quality of the product is the main characteristic demanded by consumers. The most productive Department, Huila, is supplied by abundant water bodies, consisting of 40 sub-watersheds and 535 basin areas, plus the Magdalena River, with an average annual temperature of 27 °C In this region, 58% of the Tilapia that is exported from Colombia is produced (Gómez et al 2014). We report on the prevalence and levels of different types of MPs in various tissue compartments (edible and non-edible) from farmed and wild freshwater fish sources
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