Border biosecurity and the use of species identification techniques in the ornamental fish trade: The case of the South American freshwater pufferfishes

Abstract

The international aquarium trade reached an annual trade volume estimated at U$15–25 billion, being by far the largest exchange route for several exotic plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate species. In this sense, the poorly regulated international trade, mainly related with ornamental fishes, is a source of major risks to both biodiversity and local economy. In such scenario, the species identification still is one of the major obstacles for efficient law enforcement by the border security officials and reliable tools, protocols, and databases for species identification are still needed. In the present contribution we aimed to compare the academic approach of species identification, using the DNA barcoding methods, with the forensic approach, and the use of Insertion-Deletion polymorphisms for species determination, in a study case including the identification of a new species of Amazonian freshwater pufferfish.