title: Phylogenetic evidence for a case of misleading rather than mislabeling in caviar in the United Kingdom.
abstract: Sturgeons and paddlefish are freshwater fish which are highly valued for their caviar. Despite the fact that every single species of sturgeon and paddlefish is listed under CITES, there are reports of illegal trade in caviar where products are deliberately mislabeled. Three samples of caviar purchased in the United Kingdom were investigated for accurate CITES labeling using COI and cyt b sequencing. Initial species identification was carried out using BLAST followed by phylogenetic analyses using both maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods. Results showed no evidence for mislabeling with respect to CITES labels in any of the three samples, but we observed clear evidence for a case of misleading the customer in one sample.
authors.affiliation: School of Forensic & Investigative Sciences, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE, UK.
authors.forename: Tania Aspasia
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Arati
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iyengar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003132:Commerce; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics*; D056727:Endangered Species; D005396:Fish Products; D005399:Fishes / Q000235:genetics*; D005515:Food Labeling; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D006113:United Kingdom
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D045303:Cytochromes b; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV
keywords: Acipenseriformes; Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora; caviar; forensic science; mislabeling; sturgeon