131
Neotrop. Helminthol., 8(1), 2014
2014 Asociación Peruana de Helmintología e Invertebrados Afines (APHIA)
ISSN: 2218-6425 impreso / ISSN: 1995-1043 on line
ORIGINAL ARTICLE / ARTÍCULO ORIGINAL
SCIENTOMETRIC STUDY ON THE PARASITOLOGY OF FRESHWATER FISH IN BRAZIL
ESTUDIO CIENTOMÉTRICO EN PARASITOLOGÍA DE PECES DE AGUA DULCE EN BRASIL
1 1 1,2 1,2,3
Letícia Cucolo Karling , Bruno Hideo Ueda , Ricardo Massato Takemoto & Gilberto Cezar Pavanelli
Abstract
Suggested citation: 2014.
freshwater fish in Brazil. Neotropical Helminthology, vol. 8, n°1, jan-jun, pp. 131 - 140.
Karling, LC, Ueda, BH. Takemoto, RM & Pavanelli, GC. Scientometric study on the parasitology of
1 2 3
Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais (UEM); Programa de Pós-graduação em e Biologia Comparada (UEM);
Programa de Pós-graduação em Aquicultura e Desenvolvimento Sustentável (UFPR-Palotina).
Universidade Estadual, Maringá, Laboratório de Ictioparasitologia, CEP: 87020900, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil.
E-mail: lekarling@hotmail.com
Resumen
Este estudio presenta la situación de la investigación de parásitos de peces de agua dulce en Brasil,
indicando las cuencas hidrográficas y las áreas que requieren más estudios. Los artículos utilizados
fueron obtenidos a través de búsquedas en las bases de datos ISI y SciELO, así como en el Curriculum
Vitae de los investigadores en esta área. La búsqueda fue conducida durante el mes de Marzo 2012 y
685 artículos fueron obtenidos. El grupo más estudiado fue Monogenea y taxonomía fue el tema más
estudiado. Con respecto a la cuenca del río más estudiados destacan la región amazónica y la región de
Paraná. La mayor concentración de artículos fue en el periódico Memorias del Instituto Oswaldo Cruz.
La mayoría de los artículos fueron publicados en revistas con Qualis B1 y B2 y sin factor de impacto.
Más de la mitad de los artículos fueron encontrados en la hoja de vida de los investigadores. Creemos
que esta información contribuirá al conocimiento de la literatura disponible sobre el tema, que ofrece
subsidios a las agencias que apoyan la investigación en el país y a la identificación de brechas de
muestreo geográficas. Además, permite el diseño de futuros estudios biogeográficos y ecológicos con
el fin de ayudar en la comprensión de los patrones de diversidad biológica de varios grupos de
parásitos en Brasil.
Palabras clave: base de datos - parásito –periódicos – qualis – región.
This study presents the current state of research of freshwater fishes' parasites in Brazil, exploring the
watersheds requiring further studies. The articles used were obtained through searching the databases
ISI and SciELO, as well as direct search in the Curricula Vitae of researchers in this area. The survey
was conducted during the month of March 2012 and 685 articles were obtained. The most studied
group was Monogenea. Taxonomy was the most common studied subject. The most reported river
basin is the Amazon region and the region of Parana. The largest concentration of periodic articles was
Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Most articles were published in journals with Qualis B1 and B2
and without impact factor. More than half of the articles were found in the Curriculum of researchers. It
is believed that this information will contribute to the knowledge of the available literature on this
subject, offering subsidies to agencies that support research in the country and identifying
geographical sampling gaps. Moreover, it allows the design of future biogeographic and ecological
studies in order to assist in understanding the patterns of biological diversity of several groups of
parasites in Brazil.
Keywords: Brazil - database - journal - parasite - quails - region.
Karling et al.
Scientometric study on the parasitology of freshwater fish
Brazil has large spatial variability in water
availability (Leal, 1998), with a land area
2
exceeding 8,000,000 Km , with about 20% of
global freshwater (Bizerril & Primo, 2001). The
distribution of these resources in the country and
throughout the year is not uniform, there are
extremes of excess water in the Amazon and
limitations of availability in the Northeast (Tucci
et al., 2001) and major climate changes in
particular in the South (Marengo & Valverde,
2007).
In the Neotropical region there are recorded
4035 species of freshwater fish (Lévêque et al.,
2008), and the vast majority, 2587, occur in
Brazilian rivers (Buckup et al., 2007). However,
only a small number of these fish species were
necropsied in order to analyze the parasites in
their various aspects (Eiras et al., 2010). Species
diversity of freshwater fish in Brazil together
with the fact that each species is parasitized by
an usually high number of parasites, shows that
the diversity of parasite fauna of Brazil is very
expressive (Eiras et al., 2010). In recent years
there has been an increase in production quality
literature on the subject in the country, with
descriptions of new species, key to the
knowledge of biodiversity, but combined with
more sophisticated analyzes, trying to explain
the details of host-parasite relationships, and to
characterize the pathologies and propose
preventive measures to control these parasites.
Despite the difficulty in obtaining information
about the first scientific research done in Brazil
in relation to parasites of freshwater fish, no
doubt about the importance of the expeditions
made by the naturalist Johann Natterer
collecting different groups of parasites in several
Brazilian states. These shipments occurred
between 1817 to 1835, and the specimens were
first studied by Diesing (Diesing, 1851, 1856).
In 1913, a leading researcher at the Instituto
Oswaldo Cruz (Manguinhos) in the state of Rio
de Janeiro, Lauro Travassos began his studies
with the fauna of parasites of vertebrates,
including fish. Over the years described several
genera and species of parasites, becoming
internationally known as the "Father of the
Brazilian Helminthology". Among these
publications, there is a landmark of Brazilian
parasitology, helminth fauna of freshwater fish
in Brazil, published in 1928 by Travassos,
Artigas and Pereira in the Archives of the
Biological Institute.
Necessary to mention the contributions of
leading researchers in the study of these
parasites Boeger, W. A.; Chubb, J. C.; Cohen, S.
C.; Crane, J. W.; Eiras, J. C.; Fernandes, B. M.
M.; Freitas, T.; Gibson, D. I. ; Kohn, A.; Kritsky,
D. C.; Luque, J. L.; Machado Filho, D. A.;
Mizelle, J. D.; Molnár, K.; Moravec, F.; Pinto, R.
M.; Rego, A. A.; Santos, C. P.; Tavares, L. E. R.;
Thatcher, V. E; Travassos, J. F. L.; Vicente, J. J.;
Woodland, W. N. F (Woodland, 1934; Machado
Filho, 1947; Mizelle et al., 1968; Travassos et
al., 1969; Kristky et al., 1986; Thatcher, 1991;
Kohn & Cohen, 1998; Moravec, 1998; Rego et
al., 1999; Vicente & Pinto, 1999; Eiras et al.,
2005; Kohn et al., 2007; Luque & Tavares, 2007;
Santos et al., 2008). Besides the authors cited
above, should also be noted the significant
recent contributions of some researchers:
Adriano, E. A.; Amato, J. F. E.; Azevedo, C.;
Brooks, D.; Brazil Sato, M. C.; Cecarelli, P. S.;
Chambrier, A.; Chubb, J. C.; Lizama, M. de los
Angeles, Malta, J. C. O.; Marques, F. P. L.;
Martins, M. L.; Sholz, T.; Varella, A. M. B.
among others.
According to Tague-Sutcliffe (1992)
scientometrics is the study of the quantitative
aspects of science as a discipline or economic
activity. It is applied in the development of
science policy and involves quantitative studies
of scientific activities, including the publication.
With the increase of available literature, this new
tool has been widely used to try to understand
real direction of the studies in several areas of
scientific knowledge (Kopp et al., 2007).
This research presents the state-of-the-art of
parasites of freshwater fish in Brazil, indicating
the basins and areas requiring further ecological
studies, coupled with the effort of actions aimed
at increasing knowledge of parasite biodiversity.
INTRODUCTION
132
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Neotrop. Helminthol., 8(1), 2014
The articles used in this study were obtained
mainly from the databases of the ISI (Institute
f o r S c i e n t i f i c I n f o r m a t i o n ;
www.isiknowledge.com) and SciELO
(ScientificElectronic Library Online;
www.scielo.org) during the month of March
2012.
The key words used in the search for articles
made reference to parasites of freshwater fish in
Brazil, having been used the following terms in
both English and in Portuguese: fish* parasit*
Brazil*; for searches following substituted the
word Brazil by the name of every river basin in
Brazil (Amazon, Tocantins-Araguaia, North-
East Atlantic West, San Francisco, Paraná,
Paraguay, Parnaíba, Uruguay, Eastern Northeast
Atlantic, Eastern Atlantic, Southeast Atlantic,
total = 11) classified by the National Water
Agency-ANA. Then replaces "parasitoid"
prefixes by 13 groups of parasites (Amoebae,
Flagellate, Apicomplexa, Ciliophora, Myxozoa,
Monogenea, Digenea, Cestoda, Nematoda,
Acanthocephala, Hirudinea, Crustacea,
Mollusca) according to Eiras et al. (2010). This
search was done in "Topic" field of the ISI and
SciELO database. After research in databases,
the survey was conducted to Curriculum vittae
of researchers in this area, and consider the
references to checklists of major groups.
Of the articles analyzed, data were obtained for
the year of publication, a group of parasites,
subject matter, river basin, journal, impact factor
(year 2012) and database. Then we investigated
the Qualis in which the journals were published
the articles analyzed (year 2012). The Qualis is a
set of procedures used by CAPES (Brazilian
Coordination of Improvement of Higher
Education Personnel), linked to the Ministry of
Education – MEC and CNPq (National Council
for Scientific and Technological Development)
affect the Ministry of Science, Technology and
Innovation - MCTI, in order to assess the quality
of articles, from the analysis of the quality of
scientific journals. This survey was conducted
using the application WebQualis, which frames
the journals in different fields of knowledge in
strata indicative of quality - A1, the highest
standard, followed by A2, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, C
- with zero weight. For this work, the area of
Capes was consulted on Biodiversity.
The articles were analyzed from 1856, the first
record of the matter, until 2012, the year in which
the survey was conducted.
The results here obtained show that the number
of articles published in the area of freshwater
fishes' parasites is growing significantly in
Brazil, especially from the 80s, and recorded
until 2012 a total of 685 articles (Fig. 1). The
most studied group of parasitic was Monogenea,
together Fauna (articles involving more than one
parasite group) (35%), followed by Crustacea
with 15% (Fig. 2).
The issue that stood out in the articles was
taxonomy involving descriptions of new species
and taxonomic revisions (61%), followed by
ecology (15%), occurrence records (13%) and
other issues with about 10% of the total (Fig. 3).
For regions most studied watersheds include the
Amazon region with 212 (31%) articles and the
region of Parana with 182 (27%) (Fig. 4).
Of the total number of articles found in this
study, 115 are published in the journal Memórias
do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, coming, then the
journals Brazilian Journal of Biology (54)
RESULTS
MATERIALS AND METHODS
It is expected that the northeast region has the
lowest number of articles, as the number of
researchers is reduced. This information will
contribute to the knowledge of the available
literature on this topic, and provide subsidies for
research funding agencies in the country. This
will also allow the design of future ecological
and biogeographical studies, in order to assist in
the understanding of patterns of biological
diversity of the various groups of parasites.
(former Brazilian Journal of Biology), Acta
Amazon (47) and Acta Scientiarum (44) (former
UNIMAR). In Other includes journals that had
less than10 published articles (Fig. 5).
134
Karling et al.
Scientometric study on the parasitology of freshwater fish
As shown in Figure 6, the majority of articles
were published in journals with Qualis B1 and
B2, representing over 50% of total production,
and 20% of the publications can be found in
journals of high scientific level (A2) (Fig. 6).
Figure 1. Studies in parasitology of freshwater fish in Brazil, from 1915 to 2012. The reference of Diesing (1856) was not used
because it was the only item recorded until 1915.
Figure 2. Number of publications by a group of parasites addressed in articles. *Items that have more than one group of parasites.
135
Neotrop. Helminthol., 8(1), 2014
Figure 3. Number of publications by subject matter in scientific articles. * Other issues addressed.
Figure 4. Number of articles published in the river basin of Brazil.
Regarding the impact factor of the article it
appears that most of the articles (39%) is
recorded in journals without impact factor,
followed by magazines with factors ranging
from 0.51 to 1 (24%) and 2.01 to 2.5 (22%) (Fig.
7).
As shown in Figure 8, most of the articles was
recorded in Lattes leading researchers in the
field (53%), followed by ISI (29%) and Other
and Scielo less than 20% (Fig. 8).
136
Karling et al.
Scientometric study on the parasitology of freshwater fish
Figure 5. Number of articles published in the area ictioparasitologia in major journals. * Journals with less than 10 publications in
the Field.
Figure 6. Number of articles from journals and Qualis (area Biodiversity).
137
Neotrop. Helminthol., 8(1), 2014
Figure 7. Number of articles and impact factor of scientific journals.
Figure 8. Number of articles published in the area ictioparasitologia and the database where were registered. * Other items in
collections.
The number of publications about the
parasitology of freshwater fish in Brazil is
increasing significantly. This is particularly
evident when analyzing the past seven years,
since the production in this period exceeds that
of the last decade. This can be justified because
there is now a consensus on the need and
importance of studying the fish more effectively,
since it represents a precious natural resource for
the country, coupled with the need to understand
the biodiversity of parasites of animals
combined with an increase in the number of
researchers. However, the number of parasites
articles is still very small compared to the fish
because of about 2,500 species of fish only ¼ of
them were analyzed for parasites (Eiras et al.,
2010). It is known that in Brazil there is urgent
need to inventory all basins, coupled with the
shortage in the number of researchers and the
infrastructure needed for sampling, the small
number of inventories carried, the dispersion of
information that are often difficult to access and
the need to for various taxonomic groups
DISCUSSION
138
Karling et al.
Scientometric study on the parasitology of freshwater fish
(Agostinho et al., 2005). This is particularly true
in the case of fish parasites Brazil.
It is believed that the greater number of articles
which relate Monogenea, is due to the fact that
each of tropical fish species have about five
Monogenea species being the most prevalent
group (Pavanelli et al., 2008). This may be an
explanation to justify the results found. As
regards the Fauna this happens, since most of the
fish is parasitized by more than one group of
parasite.
The issue was addressed more to taxonomic
aspects, fundamental to the development of any
type of biological research. Descriptions of
species are absolutely necessary when exploring
new areas. The most studied are novel
environments, the greater the probability of
finding species to be described in science, both
as regards the fish and with regard to their
parasites. The Brazilian School has always had
an emphasis on taxonomy, which is reflected in
other areas, leading to formation of researchers
to profile systematists. In the taxonomy, ecology
has aroused considerable interest, as the system
host-parasite model represents a very peculiar
ecological relationships, requiring a greater
effort to their perfect understanding (Dogiel,
1961). Is important to emphasize the absence of
theory in science.
The fact that the Amazon is the most prevalent is
mainly due to the existence of the National
Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA),
which brings together many researchers in this
area. But the emphasis on the Parana river basin
can be explained mainly by the construction of
the Itaipu Hydroelectric Plant in 1982, that has
performed scientific cooperation agreements
with Nupélia (Research Nucleus in Limnology,
Ichthyology and Aquaculture of the
Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Paraná),
allowing the development of a series of
researches on the region, in particular in studies
of fish parasites.
It is found that the journals that concentrate most
of the articles are the Memórias do Instituto
Oswaldo Cruz, Brazilian Journal of Biology.
The first, created by Oswaldo Cruz in 1909, is
one of the oldest scientific journals of Latin
America and with higher impact factor in Brazil.
This may be due to concentration in the Instituto
Oswaldo Cruz (IOC) most pioneering
researchers of this group of animals. Another
magazine is the pioneer in Brazil Brazilian
Journal of Biology, which began operations in
1941 and was initially linked to the Brazilian
Academy of Sciences.
The large number of articles published in
national journals with low impact factor can be
explained by the lack of concern of researchers
with these old ratings, since only recently
CAPES and CNPq began to consider them in
evaluation processes of production Brazilian
scientific, beyond the restriction of language,
since it is hardly used the English language. At
the time the main goal that ruled the researchers
was just dissemination of the results of their
research, beyond the limitations of science in the
past.
This result advises that the search for articles
related to a particular subject cannot be limited
only to databases such as ISI, being necessary to
consult the researchers Lattes, otherwise a lot of
information is lost. However, it is necessary to
emphasize the difficulty of this procedure, since
not always known leading researchers in certain
areas and there is difficulty in obtaining articles
very old.
Thus, it is evident that the majority of published
articles are referring to the description of new
species, because the vast majority of scientists
who began this line of research in Brazil are
called naturalists, with a much restricted to the
identification of new taxa. Another important
perspective is the need to focus efforts to
increase awareness of biodiversity coupled with
the understanding of relations parasite-host,
mainly from the point of view of ecology.
The Northeast recorded the lowest number of
scientific information on the parasitic fauna of
fish. This can be explained by the limited
number of researchers engaged in this line of
knowledge and consequently ends up requiring
139
Neotrop. Helminthol., 8(1), 2014
fewer resources from the public organs. Thus, it
is the need for public policies aiming to change
throughout the year that this current situation
creates gaps in the knowledge of the true
biodiversity of parasites of our fish.
It is understood that such studies should be
encouraged. In addition to presenting a picture
of the current state of the art on the parasites of
fishes in Brazil, show the need for substantial
efforts to study more intensively the parasites of
fish, since this biodiversity is still imperfectly
known.
The authors wish to thank to Nupélia/UEM,
Núcleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia
e Aquicultura for logistic and financial support.
Letícia Cucolo Karling was supported by a
research fellow ship from CAPES (Coordenação
de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Ensino
Superior). Ricardo Massato Takemoto and
Gilberto Cezar Pavanelli were supported by a
Research fellowship from CNPq (Conselho
Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e
Tecnológico).
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Received February 14, 2014.
Accepted April 14, 2014.
