Distinguishing between Farmed and Wild-Caught Black Tiger Prawns, Penaeus monodon, using Stable Isotopes

Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com an essential source of omega-3 fatty acids, protein, vitamins and iodine [2,3]. The importance of seafood is highlighted by its high market value, which is around $94 billion USD annually. With seafood consumption increasing globally, and with 44% of the world’s fisheries being fully to heavily exploited, the only sustainable solution is the use of aquaculture to meet demand [4]. Black tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) is a commercially-valuable species farmed widely in Asian-Pacific countries because global demand is high, and the commodity, thus, lucrative [5]. However, intensification of prawn aquaculture has raised concerns over food safety due to presence of residual antibiotics, heavy metals, hormones and pathogens that present a risk to human health [6]. Banned substances, like antibiotics, have been found in farmed seafood imported into several countries [7]. Over recent years, there have been recurrent reports of substitution of expensive seafood products with cheaper commodities leading to what can be described as food fraud [8]. This illegal practice is of particular concern for the prawn industry because the commodity is often traded across a wide geographic area. Therefore, seafood, such as prawn, is immensely important not only to ensure public health and safety, but also for the sustainability of the industry, whether based on aquaculture or dependent on the wild fishery. Currently, seafood provenance identification relies on several techniques, with DNA most commonly used [9]. However, DNA profiling cannot ascertain production methods because the differences in the DNA of farmed and wild-caught prawns, and other seafood commodities, are unlikely to be significant [10,11]. Stable isotope analysis (SIA) has become an important technique in trophic ecology [12]. The stable carbon isotopes (13C/12C) indicate the sources of nutrients, while the nitrogen isotopes (15N/14N) may indicate the trophic level of an organism in the food web. Because the isotopic values of a consumer are related to the composition of the diet [13], the differences in such diets, stemming from changes in farming practices, would be reflected in the isotopic profile of consumer muscle. The aim of the case study is to apply stable carbon and nitrogen analysis to distinguish between farmed and wild-caught P. monodon.