Toxins 2019, 11(1), 58; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins11010058
The Incidence of Marine Toxins and the Associated Seafood Poisoning Episodes in the African Countries of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea
1
CIIMAR/CIMAR—Interdisciplinary Center of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto, Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto, Avenida General Norton de Matos, 4450-238 Matosinhos, Portugal
2
Institute of Biomedical Science Abel Salazar, University of Porto, R. Jorge de Viterbo Ferreira 228, 4050-313 Porto, Portugal
3
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Eduardo Mondlane University, Av. Julius Nyerere, n 3453, Campus Principal, Maputo 257, Mozambique
4
Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 4619-007 Porto, Portugal
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 27 November 2018 / Revised: 10 January 2019 / Accepted: 10 January 2019 / Published: 21 January 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toxins:10th Anniversary)
Abstract
The occurrence of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and bacteria can be one of the great threats to public health due to their ability to produce marine toxins (MTs). The most reported MTs include paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs), amnesic shellfish toxins (ASTs), diarrheic shellfish toxins (DSTs), cyclic imines (CIs), ciguatoxins (CTXs), azaspiracids (AZTs), palytoxin (PlTXs), tetrodotoxins (TTXs) and their analogs, some of them leading to fatal outcomes. MTs have been reported in several marine organisms causing human poisoning incidents since these organisms constitute the food basis of coastal human populations. In African countries of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, to date, only South Africa has a specific monitoring program for MTs and some other countries count only with respect to centers of seafood poisoning control. Therefore, the aim of this review is to evaluate the occurrence of MTs and associated poisoning episodes as a contribution to public health and monitoring programs as an MT risk assessment tool for this geographic region. View Full-TextKeywords:
Indian Ocean; marine toxins; harmful algal bloom
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Tamele, I.J.; Silva, M.; Vasconcelos, V. The Incidence of Marine Toxins and the Associated Seafood Poisoning Episodes in the African Countries of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea. Toxins 2019, 11, 58.
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