Publications by authors named "Doriana Iaccarino"

In a marine ecosystem, the most sensitive organisms to environmental changes, mainly to anthropic pressures, are fishes and invertebrates. Therefore, they are considered the ideal targets to indirectly evaluate the health of an entire ecosystem. Teleost fishes, particularly those that occupy the highest trophic levels, can accumulate toxic substances through their diet.

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  • Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a threat to various species, including wildlife, with increasing human activity exacerbating the issue in wild animals like sea turtles.
  • A study analyzed antibiotic resistance in bacteria from loggerhead sea turtles at a rescue center in Southern Italy over nine years, revealing high resistance rates to several antibiotics, particularly among Gram-negative bacteria.
  • The findings underscore the necessity for better antimicrobial management and monitoring in wildlife populations to protect both endangered species and public health.
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  • Listeria is a widespread bacteria that can cause listeriosis in humans and animals, but research about its spread is mostly focused on land, neglecting marine environments.
  • This study examined the presence of Listeria species in sea turtles from the Mediterranean, collecting 164 carcasses for analysis.
  • Results showed the isolation of potentially dangerous strains of Listeria in sea turtles, with similar virulence genes found in both human and turtle samples, highlighting concerns for public health.
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  • Rhodococcus equi is a type of bacteria that commonly causes pneumonia in foals, but this report discusses its first documented infection case in a bottlenose dolphin in Italy.
  • The dolphin exhibited lung and colon damage during a post-mortem examination and tested positive for dolphin morbillivirus as well.
  • Histological analysis confirmed the presence of lesions related to R. equi infection, including specific types of pneumonia and colitis, and whole genome sequencing validated the identification of the bacteria.
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  • Researchers analyzed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the liver and salt glands of 19 loggerhead turtles found along the south Tyrrhenian Sea coast in Italy from 2019 to 2021.
  • * They used gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to find that PAH levels in the turtles were exceptionally high, particularly in the salt glands, raising concerns about the turtles' health.
  • * Naphthalene was the most abundant PAH, suggesting exposure from petroleum sources, and the study indicates a potential risk for neoplastic diseases in these turtle populations due to human activities.
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Plastics are the most widely discharged waste into the aquatic ecosystems, where they break down into microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs). MPs are ingested by several marine organisms, including benthic and pelagic fish species, contributing to organ damage and bioaccumulation. This study aimed to assess the effects of MPs ingestion on gut innate immunity and barrier integrity in gilthead seabreams (Sparus aurataLinnaeus, 1758) fed for 21 days with a diet enriched with polystyrene (PS-MPs; 1-20 μm; 0, 25 or 250 mg /kg b.

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Marine pollution is one of the major threats affecting loggerhead turtles, which due to their long life span, highly migratory behavior, and carnivorous diet, may be exposed to elevated levels of toxic elements throughout their life. The transfer of chemicals from mothers to their offspring is of particular conservation concern because it may affect embryonic development and hatching success. In this study, the concentrations of 16 toxic and potentially toxic trace elements, 6 indicator polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and organochlorine pesticide residues (OCPs) were determined in 138 eggs from 46 loggerhead turtle nests laid during the 2021 nesting season in Campania, Italy, western Mediterranean Sea.

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The levels of six non-dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs 28, 52, 101, 138, 153, and 180) were determined in the liver of 84 loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) stranded along the coasts of the Tyrrhenian Sea in Campania Region (Southern Italy), from 2017 to 2021. The average value of the sum (∑PCB) was 28.0 ± 52.

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This study assesses for the first time the levels of PCDD/Fs and DL-PCBs in sea turtles coming from Tyrrhenian Sea. The concentrations measured in liver of the 24 specimens analysed were 6.90 vs 5.

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Host biological factors and habitat influence the faunal assemblages and biodiversity worldwide, including parasite communities of vertebrate and invertebrate hosts. The ecological relationship between hosts and parasites can be mediated by interaction of host's biological factors, as their physiological condition, diet and size, with the environmental components, somehow influencing the features of parasite infection in host populations. Here, we used boosted regression tree models to study the parasite communities of two sympatric sparid fishes, the salema Sarpa salpa and the white seabream Diplodus sargus, to investigate the role of specific host's traits in two contiguous coastal areas along the southern-western Tyrrhenian coast of Italy characterized by different degree of deterioration.

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Non-essential toxic metals are environmental pollutants that contaminate the marine ecosystem due to their extensive use and long-range transport (by rivers and air). Their presence into the environment is often linked to the human activity, with an expected bioaccumulation in the food chain. Within the marine animals, sea turtles may be considered as potential sentinel species for environmental assessment because of their long lifetime, habitat use and migratory nature.

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Background: The Spirorchiidae is a family of blood flukes parasitizing turtles. Spirorchiids may cause a wide range of inflammatory reactions in the vascular system of their host being frequently implicated with stranding and death of sea turtles worldwide. Recent studies revealed the presence of two spirorchiid species in the Mediterranean basin.

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The original version of this article contained a mistake in the value of Bar in figure 3 caption. It should be Bar = 200 μm instead of Bar = 500 μm.

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Sulcascaris sulcata Rudolphi 1819 is a gastric nematode parasite of sea turtles. Here, we report the occurrence and describe for the first time the pathological changes caused by S. sulcata in the Mediterranean loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) stranded along the Tyrrhenian coast and northern Adriatic coast of Italy.

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Trypanorhynch cestodes are common parasites of marine fish with complicated life cycles which have been suggested as model taxa to study the evolution of marine helminth parasites and their life cycles. Among the Trypanorhyncha, the genus Grillotia includes 18 valid species, of which only four have been found in Mediterranean fish hosts. Morphological, histopathological, and molecular data are presented on a massive Grillotia plerocercus infection in an anglerfish (Lophius piscatorius) from the Tyrrhenian Sea.

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Dolphin morbillivirus (DMV) has caused several mortality events in Mediterranean striped () and bottlenose () dolphins populations since 19; in the last 5 years, the virus was reported to infect new hosts in this basin, such as fin whales (), sperm whales (), and even a harbor seal (). Very recently, a calf Cuvier's beaked whale () calf stranded on the Southern Italian coastline with mild pathological findings suggestive of morbilliviral infection, received the first confirmation of DMV infection in this species by biomolecular evidences on lung tissue. This new cross-species infection report, along with 19% of the cetaceans specimens examined by the Italian Stranding Network being found positive to DMV, support the hypothesis of an endemic circulation of this virus among Mediterranean cetaceans.

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