Ciguatera toxins causing

Ciguatera, caused by ingested ciguatoxins and maitotoxins, can reportedly be sexually transmitted. There are also reports of acute health effects of ciguatera toxin in the fetus and newborn child exposed through placental and breast milk transmission from the mother. 

Becker (2004). Becker LC, Dickey RW, Poli MA, et al. Development of a biomarker for exposure to ciguatera toxins. 11th International Conference on Harmful Algal Blooms, Cape Town, South Africa, 2004. Benoit (2002). Benoit E, Mattei C, Ouanounou G, et al. Ionic mechanisms involved in the nodal swelling of myelinated axons caused by marine toxins. Cell Mol Biol Lett 2002 7(2) 317-321. 

From the human perspective, HABs are problematic because they cause (1) risks to human health, (2) loss of natural or cultured seafood resources, (3) impairment of tourism and recreational activities, and (4) damage to noncommercial marine resources and wildlife. Exposure pathways include (1) consumption of toxic shellfish that have accumulated phytoplankton toxins filtered from the water, (2) consumption of tropical fish that have accumulated phytoplankton toxins (ciguatera), (3) inhalation of aerosolized toxins ejected from the sea surface, and (4) skin contact resulting in irritations due to allergy-like reactions. Harmful health effects from acute exposures have been relatively well studied. Less well known are the health effects resulting from chronic exposures to low toxin levels. This is of particular concern with regards to marine mammals and seabirds. 

Over the last eight years, most of the estimated cases of world-wide poisoning in humans due to the three major kinds of seafood toxins that are found in fresh and unspoiled marine organisms, namely, paralytic shellfish poison (PSP-saxitoxins/ gonyautoxins), ciguatoxin(s), and tetrodotoxin, (13-16) were caused by ciguatera (Table I). 

Finally, it is clearly evident that no one dinoflagellate species should be singled out as the major ciguatera causative organism nor should it be assumed that a single toxin is the major cause of ciguatera in the Caribbean. This is especially important in view of the fact that no species has been shown conclusively to produce ciguatoxin as described from moray eel by Scheuer and coworkers (6) and Tachibana (37). 

Maitotoxin 35 may play an important role in ciguatera caused by herbivorous fish and presents an extremely potent toxicity against mice the toxin possesses very potent cytotoxicity, ichthyotoxicity, and hemolytic activity. The various pharmacological activities of this toxin are probably due to the stimulation of calcium influx into the cells <1996CHEC-II429, 2000NPR293>. 

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