RESUMEN
DNA barcoding without assessing reliability and validity causes taxonomic errors of species identification, which is responsible for disruptions of their conservation and aquaculture industry. Although DNA barcoding facilitates molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis of species, its availability in clariid catfish lineage remains uncertain. In this study, DNA barcoding was developed and validated for clariid catfish. 2,970 barcode sequences from mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) and cytochrome b (Cytb) genes and D-loop sequences were analyzed for 37 clariid catfish species. The highest intraspecific nearest neighbor distances were 85.47%, 98.03%, and 89.10% for COI, Cytb, and D-loop sequences, respectively. This suggests that the Cytb gene is the most appropriate for identifying clariid catfish and can serve as a standard region for DNA barcoding. A positive barcoding gap between interspecific and intraspecific sequence divergence was observed in the Cytb dataset but not in the COI and D-loop datasets. Intraspecific variation was typically less than 4.4%, whereas interspecific variation was generally more than 66.9%. However, a species complex was detected in walking catfish and significant intraspecific sequence divergence was observed in North African catfish. These findings suggest the need to focus on developing a DNA barcoding system for classifying clariid catfish properly and to validate its efficacy for a wider range of clariid catfish. With an enriched database of multiple sequences from a target species and its genus, species identification can be more accurate and biodiversity assessment of the species can be facilitated.
RESUMEN
In West Africa, the bushmeat trade is a major societal issue with contrasting implications on biodiversity, health and economy. We studied perceptions of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the bushmeat trade dynamics through questionnaires addressed to 377 vendors across three West African countries. We showed that bushmeat vendors constitute a socio-economic category driven by ethnicity and gender bias, engaged in profitable, long-term careers. There was a general consensus among vendors that the COVID-19 pandemic and related governmental measures had a negative impact on their activities and the number of clients, a cost still perceived as visible at the time of the survey. However, we observed large discrepancies among the national trade dynamics relative to the constraints of the pandemic. Cote dIvoire was hardly hit by the bushmeat ban and perceived governmental measures as rather negative, whereas Cameroon generally did not report a temporary stop of bushmeat activities and engaged in the stockpiling of pangolins, and Benin mostly suffered from a weakened supply chain. Because such differences are rooted in the geography and political agenda of each country, predicting the impact of mitigation measures on the global dynamics of bushmeat markets might be an unrealistic task if national specificities are not taken into account. West African vendors generally did not believe that pangolins were involved in the pandemic, for the reason that people have always been eating pangolins and have never been sick. We recommend that future awareness campaigns through television and social networks also include education on microbial evolution and host shift.
