Newsroom
Scientific news about the fishing sector, fish and their parasites
EFSA, 2013-10-15
EFSA confronts the tricky questions of transparency (EN)
EFSA’s stakeholder conference on transparency made one thing clear: there are no simple answers to questions about openness. The meeting – attended by senior EFSA staff, scientists, industry representatives, non-governmental organisations, international lawyers, and other stakeholders – debated a range of themes and questions, such as: does openness mean publishing all data? How should uncertainty be reflected in EFSA’s conclusions? And should more of EFSA’s scientific meetings be open to observers? Get a taste of the discussion by reading our report of the day’s main talking points...
Ipac Acuicultura, 2013-10-14
Flat oyster and anisakis, two challenges for the aquaculture sector analysed at ForoAcui (ES)
Two large European projects, funded by EU 7th Framework Programme, were the main protagonists during the second day of the "Foro de los Recursos Marinos y la Acuicultura de las Rías Gallegas" (Galician marine resources and aquaculture forum), held in O Grove (Pontevedra, Spain). One of these projects is PARASITE, recently launched for addressing the challenge to solve the evaluation of the risk associated to fish borne parasites.
Faro de Vigo, 2013-10-12
Experts show that fighting against fish parasites and recovering the European flat oyster is possible (ES)
The "Foro de los Recursos Marinos y la Acuicultura de las Rías Gallegas" (Galician marine resources and aquaculture forum) finished making clear that it is possible to fight against some parasites affecting fish and even adopt measures for recovering the European flat oyster production.
Berlingske, 2013-10-08
Professor Kurt Buchmann talks about the presence of anisakid nematodes in Baltic fish (DK)
Danish newspaper Berlingske has recently interviewed Dr. Kurt Buchmann, from University of Copenhangen. He explained that zoonotic nematode larvae of the species Pseudoterranova decipiens (cod worms, seal worms) are prevalent anisakid nematode larvae in many fish stocks in the Atlantic and the Pacific, but have until recently been absent or extremely rare in the isolated and stationary Baltic cod population, located in the Baltic Sea between Denmark, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Russia and the Baltic republics. This may be associated with a previously low population of the final hosts (seals) at the main spawning grounds of this Baltic fish stock.
During the latest decade, however, the Baltic has been invaded successfully by grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) and in 2013 more than 400 grey seals were colonizing the small rocky islets Ertholmene located east of Bornholm, in the Southern Baltic. Local fishermen complained subsequently about seals excessively harvesting fish directly from fishing gear and consumers reported on occurrence of worms in fish products from the area, which called for this investigation. Cod caught in the area in 2011 and 2013 were investigated for the presence of nematode larvae in the flesh using a combination of artificial digestion (based on pepsin and hydrochloric acid) and compression techniques. Recovered parasites were diagnosed with molecular and classical techniques. Results. It was found now that more than 20% of the investigated cod samples were infected by third stage larvae of Pseudoterranova decipiens. The intensity is increasing.
Dr. Buchmann also explained that the emerging infections of cod in the Baltic should be considered a risk not only to the local cod population itself but also to the economy of the fish processing industry. Further, the zoonotic potential of these anisakid larvae may affect consumer health. Therefore the risk for further propagation and spreading of worms should be noted and seal control strategies implemented.
Here you can watch the interview
Here you can read the article
EC - Joint Research Centre, 2013-10-02
GBIO - new platform for using latest ICT to share knowledge on biodiversity worldwide (EN)
A JRC co-authored report outlining a framework for better understanding of the world's biodiversity was released today. The Global Biodiversity Informatics Outlook (GBIO) report, compiled by 17 international contributing authors, describes a framework for using the latest communication technologies to share information on biodiversity on a global scale.