Abstract
BackgroundThe whitespotted conger Conger myriaster (Brevoort) (Anguilliformes: Congridae) is an extremely marketable food fish, commonly consumed as sashimi or sushi in some Asian countries (i.e. Japan, Korea and China). Conger myriaster is also suspected as being an extremely important source of human anisakidosis. However, there is currently very little information on the levels of infection with ascaridoid nematode parasites in this economically important marine fish. The aims of the present study are to determine the species composition, prevalence and mean intensity of ascaridoid parasites of C. myriaster caught in the Zhoushan Fishery.ResultsA total of 1142 third-stage ascaridoid larvae were isolated from 204 C. myriaster. The overall prevalence of infection was 100% (mean intensity 5.6). Nine species of such larvae were accurately identified using integrative taxonomic techniques involving both morphological and genetic data; these included Anisakis pegreffii, A. typica and A. simplex (sensu stricto) × A. pegreffii, Hysterothylacium fabri, H. aduncum, H. sinense, H. amoyense, H. zhoushanense and Raphidascaris lophii. Although high levels of infection and species richness were revealed in C. myriaster, most of the ascaridoid parasites (1135 individuals) were collected from the body cavity and visceral organs of the fish and only seven individuals of A. pegreffii were found in the musculature.ConclusionsThis study represents the first report C. myriaster from the Zhoushan Fishery being heavily infected with third-stage ascaridoid larvae. Among the ascaridoid larvae parasitic in this fish, an important etiological agent of human anisakidosis, A. pegreffii (L3), represents the predominant species. The genus Hysterothylacium has the highest species richness, with H. fabri (L3) being the most prevalent species. This high level of infection of A. pegreffii (L3) in C. myriaster suggests a high risk of anisakidosis or associated allergies for people consuming raw or poorly cooked fish originating from this marine area. These findings provide important basic information on the occurrence and infection parameters of ascaridoid nematodes in this economically important marine fish. They also have significant implications for the prevention and control of human anisakidosis when conger eels from the Zhoushan Fishery are consumed.
Highlights
The whitespotted conger Conger myriaster (Brevoort) (Anguilliformes: Congridae) is an extremely marketable food fish, commonly consumed as sashimi or sushi in some Asian countries (i.e. Japan, Korea and China)
Based on morphological characters (Figs. 2, 3; Table 1), we found that these larvae represented six different morphotypes belonging to three different genera: Anisakis, Hysterothylacium and Raphidascaris
Conger myriaster caught in the Zhoushan Fishery was heavily infected with ascaridoid third-stage larvae
Summary
The whitespotted conger Conger myriaster (Brevoort) (Anguilliformes: Congridae) is an extremely marketable food fish, commonly consumed as sashimi or sushi in some Asian countries (i.e. Japan, Korea and China). The whitespotted conger Conger myriaster (Brevoort) (Anguilliformes: Congridae) has been considered one of the most common and marketable food-fishes in some Asian countries (i.e. Japan, Korea and China), where it is favoured for consumption raw as sashimi or sushi [14,15,16,17]. This fish is mainly distributed between the East China Sea and the waters of Korea and Japan [18]. The aims of the present study are to determine the species composition, prevalence and mean intensity of ascaridoid parasites in C. myriaster caught in the Zhoushan Fishery
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