ciguatoxins and Paralysis

Topics: Animals; Ciguatoxins; Dinoflagellida; Europe; Foodborne Diseases; Humans; Japan; Marine Toxins; Mollusca; Nervous System Diseases; Paralysis; Shellfish; Water Microbiology

The frequency and scale of Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) and marine algal toxin incidents have been increasing and spreading in the past two decades, causing damages to the marine environment and threatening human life through contaminated seafood. To better understand the effect of HAB and marine algal toxins on marine environment and human health in China, this paper overviews HAB occurrence and marine algal toxin incidents, as well as their environmental and health effects in this country. HAB has been increasing rapidly along the Chinese coast since the 1970s, and at least 512 documented HAB events have occurred from 1952 to 2002 in the Chinese mainland. It has been found that PSP and DSP toxins are distributed widely along both the northern and southern Chinese coasts. The HAB and marine algal toxin events during the 1990s in China were summarized, showing that the HAB and algal toxins resulted in great damages to local fisheries, marine culture, quality of marine environment, and human health. Therefore, to protect the coastal environment and human health, attention to HAB and marine algal toxins is urgently needed from the environmental and epidemiological view.

Topics: Amnesia; Animals; China; Ciguatoxins; Diarrhea; Dinoflagellida; Environment; Eukaryota; Eutrophication; Fisheries; Food Contamination; Foodborne Diseases; Humans; Kainic Acid; Lethal Dose 50; Marine Toxins; Neurotoxicity Syndromes; Okadaic Acid; Oxocins; Paralysis; Seawater; Shellfish Poisoning

Topics: Amnesia; Animals; Bacterial Toxins; Ciguatoxins; Diarrhea; Dinoflagellida; Eukaryota; Fishes; Fishes, Poisonous; Food Contamination; Foodborne Diseases; Humans; Marine Toxins; Neurotoxins; Paralysis; Shellfish; Shellfish Poisoning; Syndrome; United Kingdom

Evaluation of the mouse toxicity assay symptom of hind leg paralysis (HLP) with mouse death by statistical analysis is presented in this study. The fishes assessed were herbivores including Ctenochaetus strigosus (kole), Ctenochaetus hawaiiensis, Acanthurus sandvicensis (manini), and Mugil cephalus (mullet); and the carnivores, Cephalopholis argus (roi) and Cheilinus rhodochrous (po'ou). The latter can also be considered an omnivore. The extracts of both herbivore and carnivore species appeared to be most toxic when HLP occurred in the mice. Ninety-three percent of the mice with HLP died, whereas when no HLP (NHLP) occurred, only 51% of the mice died. Carnivore flesh extracts (po'ou and roi) were least toxic with one death out of a total 22 mice. The unidentified toxin associated with HLP appears to differ in biological properties from that of ciguatoxin(s) in that it was not found in the flesh tissues of carnivores. Further chemical studies of this toxin(s) is being addressed presently.

Topics: Animals; Biological Assay; Ciguatoxins; Diet; Evaluation Studies as Topic; Fishes; Hindlimb; Logistic Models; Mice; Paralysis; Species Specificity