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    Ciguatera Poisoning: Gambierdiscus Toxicus

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    Tarequl Islam Nishad
    Ciguatera poisoning is caused by eating reef fish contaminated with ciguatoxin made by dinoflagellates living in tropical waters. The toxin biomagnifies up the food chain and is odorless, tasteless, and heat resistant. Symptoms include gastrointestinal issues and neurological problems developing within hours of consumption. While the liver, intestines and roe accumulate more toxin, there are no reliable detection methods. Reducing risk involves avoiding large reef fish and their organs. Treatment is supportive care as there is no antidote.

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    Ciguatera Poisoning: Gambierdiscus Toxicus

    Uploaded by

    Tarequl Islam Nishad
    9 views1 page
    Ciguatera poisoning is caused by eating reef fish contaminated with ciguatoxin made by dinoflagellates living in tropical waters. The toxin biomagnifies up the food chain and is odorless, tasteless, and heat resistant. Symptoms include gastrointestinal issues and neurological problems developing within hours of consumption. While the liver, intestines and roe accumulate more toxin, there are no reliable detection methods. Reducing risk involves avoiding large reef fish and their organs. Treatment is supportive care as there is no antidote.

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    Ciguatera Poisoning

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    Ciguatera Poisoning

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    Ciguatera poisoning is caused by eating reef fish contaminated with ciguatoxin made by dinoflagellates living in tropical waters. The toxin biomagnifies up the food chain and is odorless, tasteless, and heat resistant. Symptoms include gastrointestinal issues and neurological problems developing within hours of consumption. While the liver, intestines and roe accumulate more toxin, there are no reliable detection methods. Reducing risk involves avoiding large reef fish and their organs. Treatment is supportive care as there is no antidote.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    9 views1 page

    Ciguatera Poisoning: Gambierdiscus Toxicus

    Uploaded by

    Tarequl Islam Nishad
    Ciguatera poisoning is caused by eating reef fish contaminated with ciguatoxin made by dinoflagellates living in tropical waters. The toxin biomagnifies up the food chain and is odorless, tasteless, and heat resistant. Symptoms include gastrointestinal issues and neurological problems developing within hours of consumption. While the liver, intestines and roe accumulate more toxin, there are no reliable detection methods. Reducing risk involves avoiding large reef fish and their organs. Treatment is supportive care as there is no antidote.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    Ciguatera Poisoning

    Ciguatera poisoning is a foodborne illness caused by eating certain reef fish whose flesh is
    contaminated with a toxin called ciguatoxin made by dinoflagellates such as Gambierdiscus
    toxicus which live in tropical and subtropical waters. These dinoflagellates are eaten
    by herbivorous fish which in turn are eaten by larger carnivorous fish. This is
    called biomagnification. Ciguatoxin is odourless, tasteless and cannot be removed by
    conventional cooking.

    Liver, intestines and roe accumulate more toxin than muscle tissues. Consumption of these fish
    results in disease, with gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms developing with a few (36)
    hours. Gastrointestinal symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea and
    last for a short time. Neurological symptoms include headaches, muscle aches, paresthesia
    (tingling and numbness of lips and tongue), chills, sweating, blurred vision, dryness of mouth and
    paralysis.

    No methods exist at present to detect ciguatoxin and therefore monitoring fish for the presence
    of this toxin is not possible. Incidence of the disease can be reduced by avoiding consumption of
    large fish from the reef, particularly their inner organs. There is no effective treatment or antidote
    for ciguatera poisoning. The mainstay of treatment is supportive care.

    Detection methods (Folk methods)

    In Northern Australia, where ciguatera is a common problem, folk science methods are widely
    believed to detect whether fish harbor significant ciguatoxin. The first method is that flies are
    supposed not to land on contaminated fish. The second is that cats will display symptoms after
    eating contaminated fish. A third, less common testing method involves putting a silver coin
    under the scales of the suspect fish. If the coin turns black, according to the theory, it is
    contaminated.

    In Dominican Republic, another common belief is that during months which names don't include
    the letter "R" (May through August) it is not recommended to eat certain kind of fish, because
    they are more likely to be infected by the ciguatera toxin. This method derives from excluding
    months that include "-ember". The validity of many of these tests has been scientifically rejected.

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