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Occurrence of Microplastics in Fish and Shrimp Feeds

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Abstract

Plastics with particle sizes of 100 nm to 5 mm are known as microplastics. The contamination of seafood-based feeds by larger microplastics (20 μm to 5 mm) is a growing concern. Here, we analyzed fish and shrimp meals. Microplastics were extracted using density separation methods and characterized using scanning micro Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (μ-FT-IR). The average microplastic abundance in shrimp meal was 10.7 microplastics·100 g−1. In fish meal, 1.02% of the microplastics were smaller than 1 mm, while most of the microplastics in shrimp meal were 1–5 mm. Eight colors of microplastics were observed; black, red, and orange microplastics have been rarely reported in previous studies. The microplastics found included films, fibers, and fragments, with film-type microplastics being the most common. The main chemical components of fiber-type microplastics were olefins and polyester, while film- and fragment-type microplastics were mainly paraffin and polyethylene. Additional in-depth studies of microplastics in feeds are necessary to provide data support for feed safety assessments.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Shanghai Agriculture Applied Technology Development Program, China (Grant No. G20190301), the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission Program (Grant No. 20392002200), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (Grant No. 19ZR1434300).

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Correspondence to Jiaxin Zhou.

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Yao, C., Liu, X., Wang, H. et al. Occurrence of Microplastics in Fish and Shrimp Feeds. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 107, 684–692 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-021-03328-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-021-03328-y

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