Testing the effectiveness of an international conservation agreement: marketplace forensics and CITES caviar trade regulation.

BACKGROUND: The international wildlife trade is a key threat to biodiversity. Temporal genetic marketplace monitoring can determine if wildlife trade regulation efforts such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) are succeeding. Protected under CITES effective 1997, sturgeons and paddlefishes, the producers of black caviar, are flagship CITES species. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We test whether CITES has limited the amount of fraudulent black caviar reaching the marketplace. Using mitochondrial DNA-based methods, we compare mislabeling in caviar and meat purchased in the New York City area pre and post CITES listing. Our recent sampling of this market reveals a decrease in mislabeled caviar (2006-2008; 10%; n = 90) compared to pre-CITES implementation (1995-1996; 19%; n = 95). Mislabeled caviar was found only in online purchase (n = 49 online/41 retail). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Stricter controls on importing and exporting as per CITES policies may be having a positive conservation effect by limiting the amount of fraudulent caviar reaching the marketplace. Sturgeons and paddlefishes remain a conservation priority, however, due to continued overfishing and habitat degradation. Other marine and aquatic species stand to benefit from the international trade regulation that can result from CITES listing.

Patterns of infection of the lizard malaria parasite, Plasmodium floridense, in invasive brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) in Southwestern Florida.

Plasmodium floridense is a saurian malaria parasite common in the Anolis lizards of the northern Caribbean islands and the SE USA. In the latter area, it is found in two native lizards (Sceloporus undulatus and Anolis carolinensis) and in the introduced Anolis sagrei, which is native to Cuba. We measured parasite prevalence and parasitemia in the introduced anole at a single site in North Port, Florida over 5 years. Prevalence, based on microscopic examination of blood smears, was high year-round (45.6% of adult lizards infected) but was highest in the two December collections and showed significant variation over time. The parasitemia of the P. floridense infections was extremely low, however, with a median of only three parasites per 1,000 red blood cells in infected lizards. This combination of high prevalence and low parasitemia suggests chronic infections for individual lizards and an endemic prevalence pattern. Our study also underscores the need for long-term studies to establish overall prevalence in malarial parasite systems.