Analysis of Poisoning Cases, Monitoring and Risk Warning for Marine Toxins (TTX, PSP and CTXs) in Taiwan

Abstract

Tetrodotoxin (TTX), paralytic shellfish poisons (PSP) and ciguateric toxins (CTXs) are the most important marine toxins causing seafood poisoning for humans. In this report, the poisoning cases and the causative species of marine toxins in Taiwan in recent year were reviewed. TTX poisoning cases in Taiwan were usually caused by puffer processed products such as dried dressed puffer fillet and puffer roe, followed by toxic puffer, gastropod and goby. PSP poisoning cases in Taiwan were usually caused by gastropod and shellfish contaminated from dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum, and the main toxins were identified as saxitoxin, neo saxitoxin and gonyautoxin1-4. For CTXs poisoning cases, the causative species in Taiwan included snapper, moray eel and sardine, and the suspected toxins were implicated as ciguatoxin and palytoxin. Accordingly, the system of monitoring and risk warning for marine toxins in Taiwan was formulated. The sampling and management measures are suggested for fishery products suspected with each toxin. The monitoring objectives are toxins and species inspections, and the analytic techniques including mouse bioassay, HPLC, GC-MS and LC-MS/MS can be employed for toxins investigation. Furthermore, the risk warning system should focus on toxic algae, shellfish and gastropod, which implicate PSP toxins. An alarm can be declared when the number of dinoflagellates is higher than 500 cells/L in the fish farm. The monitoring standards, control program and warning model of marine toxins should be established as soon as possible.