Ciguatera
Encyclopedia
Ciguatera is a foodborne illness
caused by eating certain reef fish
es whose flesh is contaminated with toxins originally produced by dinoflagellate
s such as Gambierdiscus toxicus which lives in tropical and subtropical waters. These dinoflagellates adhere to coral
, algae
and seaweed
, where they are eaten by herbivorous fish who in turn are eaten by larger carnivorous fish. In this way the toxins move up the food chain
and bioaccumulate. Gambierdiscus toxicus is the primary dinoflagellate responsible for the production of a number of similar toxins that cause ciguatera. These toxins include ciguatoxin
, maitotoxin
, scaritoxin and palytoxin
. Predator species near the top of the food chain in tropical and subtropical waters, such as barracuda
s, snapper
, moray eel
s, parrotfish
es, grouper
s, triggerfish
es and amberjack
s, are most likely to cause ciguatera poisoning, although many other species cause occasional outbreaks of toxicity. Ciguatoxin is very heat-resistant, so ciguatoxin-laden fish cannot be detoxified by conventional cooking
.
Researchers suggest that ciguatera outbreaks caused by cooling climatic conditions propelled the migratory voyages of Polynesians between 1000 and 1400.
, vomiting
, and diarrhea
, usually followed by neurological symptoms such as headache
s, muscle aches, paresthesia
, numbness, ataxia
, and hallucination
s. Severe cases of ciguatera can also result in cold allodynia
, which is a burning sensation on contact with cold (commonly incorrectly referred to as reversal of hot/cold temperature sensation). Doctors are often at a loss to explain these symptoms and ciguatera poisoning is frequently misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis
.
Dyspareunia
and other ciguatera symptoms have developed in otherwise healthy males and females following sexual intercourse
with partners suffering ciguatera poisoning, signifying that the toxin may be sexually transmitted. Diarrhea and facial rashes have been reported in breastfed infants of poisoned mothers, suggesting that ciguatera toxins migrate into breast milk.
The symptoms can last from weeks to years, and in extreme cases as long as 20 years, often leading to long-term disability. Most people do recover slowly over time. Often patients recover, but symptoms then reappear. Such relapses can be triggered by consumption of nuts, alcohol
, fish or fish-containing products, chicken
or eggs, or by exposure to fumes such as those of bleach
and other chemicals. Exercise is also a possible trigger. Filipino
and Chinese
people may possibly be more susceptible.
(LCMS), receptor binding assay
s (RBA
), and neuroblastoma
assays (N2A). Although testing is possible, in most cases liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry
is insufficient to detect clinically relevant concentrations of ciguatoxin in crude extracts of fish.
methods are widely believed to detect whether fish harbor significant ciguatoxin. The first method is that flies will not land on contaminated fish. The second is that cats display symptoms after eating contaminated fish. A third, less common testing method involves putting a silver coin under the scales of the suspect fish. Only if the coin turns black, is it contaminated. It is not known whether any of these tests produce accurate results.
and nearby islands. The most common old-time remedy involves bed rest subsequent to a guanabana juice enema
. Other folk treatments range from directly porting and bleeding the gastrointestinal tract to "cleansing" the diseased with a dove during a Santería
ritual . In Puerto Rico
, natives drink a tea
made from mangrove
buttons, purportedly high in B Vitamins
, to flush the toxic symptoms from the system . The efficacy of these treatments has never been studied or substantiated.
An account of ciguatera poisoning from a linguistics researcher living on Malakula island, Vanuatu, indicates the local treatment: "We had to go with what local people told us: avoid salt and any seafood. Eat sugary foods. And they gave us a tea made from the roots of ferns growing on tree trunks. I don't know if any of that helped, but after a few weeks, the symptoms faded away."
type drugs such as Nifedipine
and Verapamil
are effective in treating some of the symptoms that remain after the initial sickness passes, such as poor circulation and shooting pains through the chest. These symptoms are due to the cramping of arterial walls caused by maitotoxin
Ciguatoxin lowers the threshold for opening voltage-gated sodium channels in synapse
s of the nervous system
. Opening a sodium channel causes depolarization, which could sequentially cause paralysis, heart contraction, and changing the senses of hearing and cold. Nifedipine is a calcium channel blocker
. Some medications such as Amitriptyline
may reduce some symptoms, such as fatigue and paresthesia
, although benefit does not occur in every case. Steroids and vitamin
supplements support the body's recovery rather than directly reducing toxin effects.
Mannitol
was once used for poisoning after one study reported symptom reversal. Followup studies in animals and case reports in humans also found benefit from mannitol. However, a randomized, double-blind
clinical trial
found no difference between mannitol and normal saline
, and based on this result, mannitol is no longer recommended.
, particularly the Pacific and Caribbean, and usually is associated with fish caught in tropical reef waters. Ciguatoxin is found in over 400 species of reef fish. Avoiding consumption of all reef fish (any fish living in warm tropical waters) is the only sure way to avoid exposure. Imported fish served in restaurants may contain the toxin and to produce illness which often goes unexplained by physicians unfamiliar with the symptoms of a tropical toxin. Ciguatoxin can also occur in farm-raised
salmon
.
In 2007, ten people in St. Louis, Missouri
developed the disease after eating imported fish.
In February 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) traced several outbreaks to the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
in the northern Gulf of Mexico
, near the Texas
–Louisiana
shoreline. The FDA advised seafood processors that ciguatera poisoning was "reasonably likely" to occur from eating several species of fish caught as far as 50 miles (80.5 km) from the sanctuary.
Foodborne illness
Foodborne illness is any illness resulting from the consumption of contaminated food, pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites that contaminate food, as well as chemical or natural toxins such as poisonous mushrooms.-Causes:Foodborne illness usually arises from improper handling, preparation, or...
caused by eating certain reef fish
Reef fish
Coral reef fish are fish which live amongst or in close relation to coral reefs. Coral reefs form complex ecosystems with tremendous biodiversity. Among the myriad inhabitants, the fish stand out as particularly colourful and interesting to watch. Hundreds of species can exist in a small area of a...
es whose flesh is contaminated with toxins originally produced by dinoflagellate
Dinoflagellate
The dinoflagellates are a large group of flagellate protists. Most are marine plankton, but they are common in fresh water habitats as well. Their populations are distributed depending on temperature, salinity, or depth...
s such as Gambierdiscus toxicus which lives in tropical and subtropical waters. These dinoflagellates adhere to coral
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
, algae
Algae
Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...
and seaweed
Seaweed
Seaweed is a loose, colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae. The term includes some members of the red, brown and green algae...
, where they are eaten by herbivorous fish who in turn are eaten by larger carnivorous fish. In this way the toxins move up the food chain
Food chain
A food web depicts feeding connections in an ecological community. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one of two categories called trophic levels: 1) the autotrophs, and 2) the heterotrophs...
and bioaccumulate. Gambierdiscus toxicus is the primary dinoflagellate responsible for the production of a number of similar toxins that cause ciguatera. These toxins include ciguatoxin
Ciguatoxin
thumb|300px|right|Chemical structure of the ciguatoxin CTX1BThe ciguatoxins are a class of poisonous organic compounds found in some fish that causes ciguatera....
, maitotoxin
Maitotoxin
Maitotoxin is an extremely potent toxin produced by Gambierdiscus toxicus, a dinoflagellate species. Maitotoxin is so potent that it has been demonstrated that an intraperitoneal injection of 0.13 µg/kg was lethal in mice...
, scaritoxin and palytoxin
Palytoxin
Palytoxin is a very dangerous toxin; it is considered to be one of the most toxic non-peptide substances known, second only to maitotoxin in terms of toxicity in mice...
. Predator species near the top of the food chain in tropical and subtropical waters, such as barracuda
Barracuda
The barracuda is a ray-finned fish known for its large size and fearsome appearance. Its body is long, fairly compressed, and covered with small, smooth scales. Some species could reach up to 1.8m in length and 30 cm in width...
s, snapper
Lutjanidae
Snappers are a family of perciform fish, mainly marine but with some members inhabiting estuaries, feeding in freshwater. Some are important food fish. One of the best known is the red snapper....
, moray eel
Moray eel
Moray eels are cosmopolitan eels of the family Muraenidae. The approximately 200 species in 15 genera are almost exclusively marine, but several species are regularly seen in brackish water and a few, for example the freshwater moray can sometimes be found in freshwater...
s, parrotfish
Parrotfish
Parrotfishes are a group of fishes that traditionally had been considered a family , but now often are considered a subfamily of the wrasses. They are found in relatively shallow tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, but with the largest species richness in the Indo-Pacific...
es, grouper
Grouper
Groupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes.Not all serranids are called groupers; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name grouper is usually given to fish in one of two large genera: Epinephelus...
s, triggerfish
Triggerfish
Triggerfishes are about 40 species of often brightly colored fishes of the family Balistidae. Often marked by lines and spots, they inhabit tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, with the greatest species richness in the Indo-Pacific...
es and amberjack
Amberjack
Amberjack refers to 3 species of Atlantic fish of the Carangidae family , which includes the jacks and the pompanos.Greater amberjacks, Seriola dumerili, are the largest of the jacks. They usually have dark stripes extending from nose to in front of their dorsal fins...
s, are most likely to cause ciguatera poisoning, although many other species cause occasional outbreaks of toxicity. Ciguatoxin is very heat-resistant, so ciguatoxin-laden fish cannot be detoxified by conventional cooking
Cooking
Cooking is the process of preparing food by use of heat. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, reflecting unique environmental, economic, and cultural traditions. Cooks themselves also vary widely in skill and training...
.
Researchers suggest that ciguatera outbreaks caused by cooling climatic conditions propelled the migratory voyages of Polynesians between 1000 and 1400.
Symptoms
Hallmark symptoms of ciguatera in Humans include gastrointestinal and neurological effects. Gastrointestinal symptoms include nauseaNausea
Nausea , is a sensation of unease and discomfort in the upper stomach with an involuntary urge to vomit. It often, but not always, precedes vomiting...
, vomiting
Vomiting
Vomiting is the forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose...
, and diarrhea
Diarrhea
Diarrhea , also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day. It is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide. The loss of fluids through diarrhea can cause dehydration and...
, usually followed by neurological symptoms such as headache
Headache
A headache or cephalalgia is pain anywhere in the region of the head or neck. It can be a symptom of a number of different conditions of the head and neck. The brain tissue itself is not sensitive to pain because it lacks pain receptors. Rather, the pain is caused by disturbance of the...
s, muscle aches, paresthesia
Paresthesia
Paresthesia , spelled "paraesthesia" in British English, is a sensation of tingling, burning, pricking, or numbness of a person's skin with no apparent long-term physical effect. It is more generally known as the feeling of "pins and needles" or of a limb "falling asleep"...
, numbness, ataxia
Ataxia
Ataxia is a neurological sign and symptom that consists of gross lack of coordination of muscle movements. Ataxia is a non-specific clinical manifestation implying dysfunction of the parts of the nervous system that coordinate movement, such as the cerebellum...
, and hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
s. Severe cases of ciguatera can also result in cold allodynia
Allodynia
Allodynia is a pain due to a stimulus which does not normally provoke pain. Temperature or physical stimuli can provoke allodynia, and it often occurs after injury to a site...
, which is a burning sensation on contact with cold (commonly incorrectly referred to as reversal of hot/cold temperature sensation). Doctors are often at a loss to explain these symptoms and ciguatera poisoning is frequently misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
.
Dyspareunia
Dyspareunia
Dyspareunia is painful sexual intercourse, due to medical or psychological causes. The symptom is reported almost exclusively by women, although the problem can also occur in men. The causes are often reversible, even when long-standing, but self-perpetuating pain is a factor after the original...
and other ciguatera symptoms have developed in otherwise healthy males and females following sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
with partners suffering ciguatera poisoning, signifying that the toxin may be sexually transmitted. Diarrhea and facial rashes have been reported in breastfed infants of poisoned mothers, suggesting that ciguatera toxins migrate into breast milk.
The symptoms can last from weeks to years, and in extreme cases as long as 20 years, often leading to long-term disability. Most people do recover slowly over time. Often patients recover, but symptoms then reappear. Such relapses can be triggered by consumption of nuts, alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
, fish or fish-containing products, chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
or eggs, or by exposure to fumes such as those of bleach
Bleach
Bleach refers to a number of chemicals that remove color, whiten, or disinfect, often via oxidation. Common chemical bleaches include household chlorine bleach , lye, oxygen bleach , and bleaching powder...
and other chemicals. Exercise is also a possible trigger. Filipino
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
and Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
people may possibly be more susceptible.
Scientific detection
Currently, multiple laboratory methods are available to detect ciguatoxins, including liquid chromatography-mass spectrometryLiquid chromatography-mass spectrometry
Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry is an analytical chemistry technique that combines the physical separation capabilities of liquid chromatography with the mass analysis capabilities of mass spectrometry. LC-MS is a powerful technique used for many applications which has very high...
(LCMS), receptor binding assay
Assay
An assay is a procedure in molecular biology for testing or measuring the activity of a drug or biochemical in an organism or organic sample. A quantitative assay may also measure the amount of a substance in a sample. Bioassays and immunoassays are among the many varieties of specialized...
s (RBA
RBA
RBA has several uses including:* Rig Builders Alliance* Radial Basis Function* Radiobinding assay* Ranger Body Armor* Relative byte address* Relative Bio Availability* Reserve Bank of Australia* Retail Bakers of America...
), and neuroblastoma
Neuroblastoma
Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid cancer in childhood and the most common cancer in infancy, with an annual incidence of about 650 cases per year in the US , and 100 cases per year in the UK . Close to 50 percent of neuroblastoma cases occur in children younger than two years old...
assays (N2A). Although testing is possible, in most cases liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry
Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry
Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry is an analytical chemistry technique that combines the physical separation capabilities of liquid chromatography with the mass analysis capabilities of mass spectrometry. LC-MS is a powerful technique used for many applications which has very high...
is insufficient to detect clinically relevant concentrations of ciguatoxin in crude extracts of fish.
Folk detection
In Northern Australia, where ciguatera is a common problem, two different folk scienceFolk science
Folk science describes ways of understanding and predicting the natural and social world, without the use of rigorous methodologies . One could label all understanding of nature predating the Greeks as "folk science"....
methods are widely believed to detect whether fish harbor significant ciguatoxin. The first method is that flies will not land on contaminated fish. The second is that cats display symptoms after eating contaminated fish. A third, less common testing method involves putting a silver coin under the scales of the suspect fish. Only if the coin turns black, is it contaminated. It is not known whether any of these tests produce accurate results.
Folk remedies
Various Caribbean naturopathic and ritualistic treatments originated in CubaCuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and nearby islands. The most common old-time remedy involves bed rest subsequent to a guanabana juice enema
Enema
An enema is the procedure of introducing liquids into the rectum and colon via the anus. The increasing volume of the liquid causes rapid expansion of the lower intestinal tract, often resulting in very uncomfortable bloating, cramping, powerful peristalsis, a feeling of extreme urgency and...
. Other folk treatments range from directly porting and bleeding the gastrointestinal tract to "cleansing" the diseased with a dove during a Santería
Santería
Santería is a syncretic religion of West African and Caribbean origin influenced by Roman Catholic Christianity, also known as Regla de Ocha, La Regla Lucumi, or Lukumi. Its liturgical language, a dialect of Yoruba, is also known as Lucumi....
ritual . In Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, natives drink a tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
made from mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
buttons, purportedly high in B Vitamins
B vitamins
B vitamins are a group of water-soluble vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism. The B vitamins were once thought to be a single vitamin, referred to as vitamin B . Later research showed that they are chemically distinct vitamins that often coexist in the same foods...
, to flush the toxic symptoms from the system . The efficacy of these treatments has never been studied or substantiated.
An account of ciguatera poisoning from a linguistics researcher living on Malakula island, Vanuatu, indicates the local treatment: "We had to go with what local people told us: avoid salt and any seafood. Eat sugary foods. And they gave us a tea made from the roots of ferns growing on tree trunks. I don't know if any of that helped, but after a few weeks, the symptoms faded away."
Treatment
There is no effective treatment or antidote for ciguatera poisoning. The mainstay of treatment is supportive care. There is some evidence that calcium channel blockerCalcium channel blocker
A calcium channel blocker is a chemical that disrupts the movement of calcium through calcium channels.CCB drugs devised to target neurons are used as antiepileptics. However, the most widespread clinical usage of calcium channel blockers is to decrease blood pressure in patients with...
type drugs such as Nifedipine
Nifedipine
Nifedipine is a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker...
and Verapamil
Verapamil
Verapamil is an L-type calcium channel blocker of the phenylalkylamine class. It has been used in the treatment of hypertension, angina pectoris, cardiac arrhythmia, and most recently, cluster headaches. It is also an effective preventive medication for migraine...
are effective in treating some of the symptoms that remain after the initial sickness passes, such as poor circulation and shooting pains through the chest. These symptoms are due to the cramping of arterial walls caused by maitotoxin
Maitotoxin
Maitotoxin is an extremely potent toxin produced by Gambierdiscus toxicus, a dinoflagellate species. Maitotoxin is so potent that it has been demonstrated that an intraperitoneal injection of 0.13 µg/kg was lethal in mice...
Ciguatoxin lowers the threshold for opening voltage-gated sodium channels in synapse
Synapse
In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another cell...
s of the nervous system
Nervous system
The nervous system is an organ system containing a network of specialized cells called neurons that coordinate the actions of an animal and transmit signals between different parts of its body. In most animals the nervous system consists of two parts, central and peripheral. The central nervous...
. Opening a sodium channel causes depolarization, which could sequentially cause paralysis, heart contraction, and changing the senses of hearing and cold. Nifedipine is a calcium channel blocker
Calcium channel blocker
A calcium channel blocker is a chemical that disrupts the movement of calcium through calcium channels.CCB drugs devised to target neurons are used as antiepileptics. However, the most widespread clinical usage of calcium channel blockers is to decrease blood pressure in patients with...
. Some medications such as Amitriptyline
Amitriptyline
Amitriptyline is a tricyclic antidepressant . It is the most widely used TCA and has at least equal efficacy against depression as the newer class of SSRIs...
may reduce some symptoms, such as fatigue and paresthesia
Paresthesia
Paresthesia , spelled "paraesthesia" in British English, is a sensation of tingling, burning, pricking, or numbness of a person's skin with no apparent long-term physical effect. It is more generally known as the feeling of "pins and needles" or of a limb "falling asleep"...
, although benefit does not occur in every case. Steroids and vitamin
Vitamin
A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. In other words, an organic chemical compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on...
supplements support the body's recovery rather than directly reducing toxin effects.
Mannitol
Mannitol
Mannitol is a white, crystalline organic compound with the formula . This polyol is used as an osmotic diuretic agent and a weak renal vasodilator...
was once used for poisoning after one study reported symptom reversal. Followup studies in animals and case reports in humans also found benefit from mannitol. However, a randomized, double-blind
Double-blind
A blind or blinded experiment is a scientific experiment where some of the people involved are prevented from knowing certain information that might lead to conscious or subconscious bias on their part, invalidating the results....
clinical trial
Clinical trial
Clinical trials are a set of procedures in medical research and drug development that are conducted to allow safety and efficacy data to be collected for health interventions...
found no difference between mannitol and normal saline
Saline (medicine)
In medicine, saline is a general term referring to a sterile solution of sodium chloride in water but is only sterile when it is to be placed intravenously, otherwise, a saline solution is a salt water solution...
, and based on this result, mannitol is no longer recommended.
Epidemiology
Due to the limited habitats of ciguatoxin-producing microorganisms, ciguatera is common in only subtropical and tropical watersTropics
The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...
, particularly the Pacific and Caribbean, and usually is associated with fish caught in tropical reef waters. Ciguatoxin is found in over 400 species of reef fish. Avoiding consumption of all reef fish (any fish living in warm tropical waters) is the only sure way to avoid exposure. Imported fish served in restaurants may contain the toxin and to produce illness which often goes unexplained by physicians unfamiliar with the symptoms of a tropical toxin. Ciguatoxin can also occur in farm-raised
Aquaculture
Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the...
salmon
Salmon
Salmon is the common name for several species of fish in the family Salmonidae. Several other fish in the same family are called trout; the difference is often said to be that salmon migrate and trout are resident, but this distinction does not strictly hold true...
.
In 2007, ten people in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
developed the disease after eating imported fish.
In February 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) traced several outbreaks to the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary
The Flower Garden Banks is a U.S. National Marine Sanctuary in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, located roughly 105 miles south of Sabine Pass, Texas....
in the northern Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
, near the Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
–Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
shoreline. The FDA advised seafood processors that ciguatera poisoning was "reasonably likely" to occur from eating several species of fish caught as far as 50 miles (80.5 km) from the sanctuary.
History
Ciguatera was first described by one of the surgeon's mates, William Anderson, on the crew of HMS Resolution in 1774. (NY Times incorrectly gives his name as John)See also
- Algal bloomAlgal bloomAn algal bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in an aquatic system. Algal blooms may occur in freshwater as well as marine environments. Typically, only one or a small number of phytoplankton species are involved, and some blooms may be recognized by discoloration...
- DinoflagellateDinoflagellateThe dinoflagellates are a large group of flagellate protists. Most are marine plankton, but they are common in fresh water habitats as well. Their populations are distributed depending on temperature, salinity, or depth...
(see "neurotoxins" and "red tide" under Ecology and fossils and see "phosphate" under Life Cycle) - Red tideRed tideRed tide is a common name for a phenomenon also known as an algal bloom , an event in which estuarine, marine, or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water column and results in discoloration of the surface water. It is usually found in coastal areas...
- YessotoxinYessotoxinYessotoxins are a group of lipophilic sulphated polyester) compounds that are structurally related to brevetoxins and ciguatoxins. They are produced by a number of planktonic algal species particularly the dinoflagellates, Lingulodinium polyedrum, Gonylaulax spiniferia and Protoceratium...