29 March 2020

Commerical eDNA testing for Marmorkrebs

SureScreen Scientifics logo

The English company SureScreen Scientifics is offering commercial environmental DNA (eDNA) testing for the detection of Marmorkrebs. This is, as far as I am aware, the first commercial product or service that is specifically designed around Marmorkrebs, besides the sale of animals.

The rationale and context for this service is very much geared to monitoring white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) populations in the UK.

The white-clawed crayfish is the only native crayfish species in the UK. It is endangered and under threat from invasive crayfish species such as signal crayfish and the crayfish plague. Our simple to use eDNA test provides a cost-effective opportunity to monitor these species.

The company’s main web page says they use eDNA to check for:

  • White-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes)
  • Signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus)
  • Marbled crayfish (Procambarus virginalis)
  • Crayfish plague (Aphanomyces astaci)

The company’s technical white paper (PDF here) say they can also test for Lousiana red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) and two European species, narrow-clawed crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus) and noble crayfish (Astacus astacus). It’s not clear why these other three species are not listed on the main web page.

The ability to test for Marmorkrebs (and highlighting this on the main web page) is interesting, because there are no confirmed introductions of Marmorkrebs in the islands of Great Britain or Ireland.

On the other hand, the other four crayfish species that the company can tests for (P. leniusculus, P. clarkii, A. leptodactylus, and A. astacus) are already established in the UK (Peay et al. 2010). So are two other species, the virile crayfish (Faxonius limosus) and spiny-cheeked crayfish (Faxonius limosus) are also already in the UK.

I think there’s an interesting question of which should be the priority in developing a test: for the Faxonius species that we already know are there, or for species like Marmorkrebs that could be lurking there, undetected.

While the company is based in England, and is clearly attempting to fill a need for monitoring UK waterways, there is no reason I could see that they couldn’t handle samples from anywhere in the world.

By the way, nobody at SureScreen Scientifics paid me to say this.

References

Peay S, Holdich DM, Brickland J. 2010. Risk assessments of non-indigenous crayfish in Great Britain. Freshwater Crayfish 17: 109-122. http://iz.carnegiemnh.org/crayfish/iaa/fc17_toc.htm#


External links

SureScreen Scientific crayfish page

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