Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1893/24430
Appears in Collections:Aquaculture Journal Articles
Peer Review Status: Refereed
Title: A novel use of social media to evaluate the occurrence of skin lesions affecting wild dusky grouper, Epinephelus marginatus (Lowe, 1834), in Libyan coastal waters
Author(s): Rizgalla, Jamila
Shinn, Andrew
Ferguson, Hugh
Paladini, Giuseppe
Jayasuriya, Nilantha Sandaruwan
Bron, James
Contact Email: j.t.rizgalla@stir.ac.uk
Keywords: disease surveillance
dusky grouper dermatitis
Facebook
YouTube
Issue Date: May-2017
Date Deposited: 21-Sep-2016
Citation: Rizgalla J, Shinn A, Ferguson H, Paladini G, Jayasuriya NS & Bron J (2017) A novel use of social media to evaluate the occurrence of skin lesions affecting wild dusky grouper, Epinephelus marginatus (Lowe, 1834), in Libyan coastal waters. Journal of Fish Diseases, 40 (5), pp. 609-620. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfd.12540
Abstract: The social media network Facebook™was used to gather information on the occurrence and geographical distribution of dusky grouper dermatitis, a skin lesion affecting the dusky grouper,Epinephelus marginatus. Dusky grouper are common targets for spear fishermen in the Mediterranean and by monitoring spearfishing activity in Libyan waters, it was possible to document skin lesions from their entries on Facebook. Thirty-two Facebook accounts and 8 Facebook groups posting from 23 Libyan coastal cities provided a retrospective observational data set comprising a total of 382 images of dusky grouper caught by spearfishing between December 2011 and December 2015. Skin lesions were observable on 57/362 fish, for which images were of sufficient quality for analysis, giving a minimal prevalence for lesions of 15.75%. Only dusky grouper exceeding an estimated 40cm total length exhibited lesions. The ability to collect useful data about the occurrence and geographical distribution of pathological conditions affecting wild fish using social media networks demonstrates their potential utility as a tool to support epidemiological studies and monitor the health of populations of aquatic animals. To our knowledge, this represents the first time that such an approach has been applied for assessing health in a wild population of fish.
DOI Link: 10.1111/jfd.12540
Rights: This item has been embargoed for a period. During the embargo please use the Request a Copy feature at the foot of the Repository record to request a copy directly from the author. You can only request a copy if you wish to use this work for your own research or private study. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Rizgalla, J., Shinn, A. P., Ferguson, H. W., Paladini, G., Jayasuriya, N. S. and Bron, J. E. (2017), A novel use of social media to evaluate the occurrence of skin lesions affecting wild dusky grouper, Epinephelus marginatus (Lowe, 1834), in Libyan coastal waters. J Fish Dis, 40: 609–620, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/jfd.12540. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.

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