Pathological evaluation of Tilapia : an alternative for biomarker of environmental pollution

• Grant number: 15/12307-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2015
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Lilian Rose Marques de Sá
• Grantee: Ivy Tasso Gomes
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia (FMVZ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Water is a crucial and the second most important natural resource for life. In addition to its ecological importance, water is also fundamental to industry and business. Freshwater resources need to have quality and volume supply guaranteed for this and future generation by government. The Billings' dam is the largest dam of metropolitan region of São Paulo and it supplies about 1.2 million people. Chemical evaluation of water and sediment of Billings is part of monthly analysis of monitoring conducted by the Environmental Company of São Paulo State. However, the analysis and evaluation of pollution effects on the biota of the aquatic ecosystem are not carried out systematically in Billings. In this context, the use of biomarkers, which provide information on ecological risk, represents a monitoring tool to toxic effects in aquatic ecosystems. Histopathology of fishes as a biomarker is a fast method for the detection of sub-lethal toxic effects, especially chronic processes which result of different insults in tissues and organs arising from the quality of water in which the fishes live. Thus, fishes, such as tilapia, are important for assessing the quality of the aquatic environment as bio-indicators. Tilapia fishes have wide geographical distribution, are omnivores and they are commonly fished for consumption in Billings. The goal of the project is histopathological analysis of tilapia fishes from the Billings dam, in order to verify the possibility of using this species as bio-indicator of environmental pollution, and so subsidize public policies for environmental monitoring of the dam water quality.