Maíra Duarte Cardoso, Jailson Fulgencio de Moura, Davi C Tavares, Rodrigo A Gonçalves, Fernanda I Colabuono, Emily M Roges, Roberta Laine de Souza, Dalia Dos Prazeres Rodrigues, Rosalinda C Montone, Salvatore Siciliano
INTRODUCTION: Seabirds have been historically used to monitor environmental contamination. The aim of the present study was to test the suitability of a species belonging to the Procellariiformes group, the Manx shearwater, Puffinus puffinus, as a sentinel of environmental health, by determining contaminant levels (trace metals and organochlorine compounds) from carcass tissues and by isolating Vibrio spp. and Aeromonas spp. from live specimens. To this end, 35 Puffinus puffinus carcasses wrecked on the north-central coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and two carcasses recovered in Aracruz, on the coast of the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil, were sampled, and fragments of muscle and hepatic tissues were collected for contaminant analyses...
2014: Aquatic Biosystems