Dr. Jen M tweeted this super interesting and informative thread about fish fraud and her class sequencing fish samples. This is way more common than people realize. Fish fraud is the practice of misleading consumers about their fish in order to increase profits. Along with ripping off shoppers, these actions can have negative impacts on marine conservation efforts and human health.
Source: Dr. Jen M
(via: Miskatonic University Library)
That body louse finding is almost certainly sea lice. Very common and devastating parasite on salmon. A lot of R&D dollars have been spent trying to figure out how to raise farmed salmon without them. They’re a massive issue. They’re not supposed to be able to sell contaminated tissue, but if there are no obvious signs (infections usually cause lesions), then they may pass low level quality control.
Regardless, this is a great project for your students, and this molecular geneticist applauds your creativity!
Body louse and sea louse cannot be confused genetically; one is a copepod (sea louse) and the other is an insect (body louse).
These were not sea louse.
(also, this was from 2019 and I can’t believe it’s still making the same screen-shotted rounds from that time. I haven’t had that display picture in almost 5 years)