Reliable Field Assessment of Proliferative Kidney Disease in Wild Brown Trout, , Populations: When Is the Optimal Sampling Period?

Proliferative kidney disease (PKD), caused by the myxozoan parasite , is suspected to contribute to the decline of wild brown trout populations. Different factors need to be taken into consideration for PKD outbreaks. Among them, water temperature appears as a main driver of the disease.

A powerful long metabarcoding method for the determination of complex diets from faecal analysis of the European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis, L. 1758).

High-throughput sequencing has become an accurate method for the identification of species present in soil, water, faeces, gut or stomach contents. However, information at the species level is limited due to the choice of short barcodes and based on the idea that DNA is too degraded to allow longer sequences to be amplified. We have therefore developed a long DNA metabarcoding method based on the sequencing of short reads followed by de novo assembly, which can precisely identify the taxonomic groups of organisms associated with complex diets, such as omnivorous individuals.

Keeping an Eye on Wild Brown Trout () Populations: Correlation Between Temperature, Environmental Parameters, and Proliferative Kidney Disease.

Proliferative kidney disease (PKD) is an emerging disease of salmonids caused by the myxozoan parasite , which plays a major role in the decrease of wild brown trout () populations in Switzerland. Strong evidence demonstrated that water temperature modulates parasite infection. However, less knowledge exists on how seasonal water temperature fluctuations influence PKD manifestation under field conditions, how further environmental factors such as water quality may modulate the disease, and whether these factors coalesce with temperatures role possibly giving rise to cumulative effects on PKD.

Do fish get wasted? Assessing the influence of effluents on parasitic infection of wild fish.

Many ecosystems are influenced simultaneously by multiple stressors. One important environmental stressor is aquatic pollution via wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents. WWTP effluents may contribute to eutrophication or contain anthropogenic contaminants that directly and/or indirectly influence aquatic wildlife.

Development and implementation of eco-genomic tools for aquatic ecosystem biomonitoring: the SYNAQUA French-Swiss program.

The effectiveness of environmental protection measures is based on the early identification and diagnosis of anthropogenic pressures. Similarly, restoration actions require precise monitoring of changes in the ecological quality of ecosystems, in order to highlight their effectiveness. Monitoring the ecological quality relies on bioindicators, which are organisms revealing the pressures exerted on the environment through the composition of their communities.

The emergence of epitheliocystis in the upper Rhone region: evidence for Chlamydiae in wild and farmed salmonid populations.

We present the first study comparing epitheliocystis in a wild and farmed salmonid in Europe. Sampling three tributaries to the Lake Geneva, including one from headwaters to river mouth, revealed an unequal distribution of epitheliocystis in brown trout (Salmo trutta). When evaluated histologically and comparing sites grouped as wild versus farm, the probability of finding infected trout is higher on farms.

Mercury human exposure through fish consumption in a reservoir contaminated by a chlor-alkali plant: Babeni reservoir (Romania).

Purpose: Chlor-alkali plants are one of the most important point sources of mercury to aquatic environment. The problem of Hg contamination has been studied in a region, Rm Valcea (Romania), impacted by the wastewater discharge of a chlor-alkali plant. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the current status of mercury pollution in the Babeni reservoir (Olt River) and the exposure of local population via fish consumption to mercury originating from the chlor-alkali plant.