For Canadian Arctic indigenous populations, marine mammal (MM) traditional foods (TFs) represent sources of both important nutrients and hazardous environmental contaminants. Food preparation is known to impact the nutrient and environmental contaminant content of processed items, yet the impacts of preparation on indigenous Arctic MM TFs remain poorly characterized. In order to determine how t...

Aim The restoration of the extinct Adriatic population Beluga sturgeon, an iconic species with economic and traditional relevance, is a priority in upcoming conservation strategies but it must not occur without deep prior knowledge on current diversity distribution. We defined informed criteria for reintroduction Italian rivers by analysing its contemporary ancient based multi-markers approach....

Lactic acid bacteria are characterized as gram-positive, usually non-motile, non-sporulating bacteria that produce lactic acid as a major or sole product of their fermentative metabolism. In this study, the presence of lactobacilli were investigated in the intestines of beluga ( Huso huso) and Persian sturgeon ( Acipenser persicus ), inhabiting Caspian sea. The obtained data showed that various...

Fatty acid variation in beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) blubber: implications for estimating diet using fatty acids Heather R. Smith Chair of Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Glenn R. VanBlaricom School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences Diet is one of the most important aspects of the ecology of any species, yet remains difficult to estimate for many marine mammals. Quantitative fatty ac...

The recent evolutionary history, population structure and movement patterns of beluga whales in the western Nearctic were inferred from an analysis of mitochondrial DNA control region sequence variation of 324 whales from 32 locations representing five summer concentration areas in Alaska and north-west Canada. Phylogenetic relationships among haplotypes were inferred from parsimonious networks...

in the present study, the age- and sex-specific changes of various haematological and blood serum biochemical blood parameters of beluga ( huso huso ) were investigated. blood samples were collected from 4-, 6-, 7-, and 8-year-old beluga (n = 7 for each sex and age). the specimens were fed at a rate of 0.5-3% body weight per day. ast and ldh levels in 7- and 8-year-old fish of both sexes were s...

To compare the reproductive performance of the wild and cultured stocks of beluga, Huso huso males, some spermatological parameters were measured including: sperm motility, sperm density, spermatocrit and also fertilization rate, hatching rate and larval growth and survival rates. The semen samples were sampled from 11 wild spawners and 12 cultured brooders. A half of each semen sample was allo...