Marine biotoxins

Hessel, D., Halstead, B. and Peckham, N., Marine biotoxins. 1. Ciguatera poisoning -some biological and chemical aspects, Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 90, 788, 1960. 

Viviani, R., Eutrophication, marine biotoxins, human health, Sci. Total Env., Suppl., 631, 1992. 

Marine biotoxins are produced by naturally occurring marine phytoplankton. Marine algal toxins are responsible for more than 60,000 intoxication/year with an overall mortality of about 1.5%. These substances can accumulate in aquatic animals intended for human consumption like filter-feeding mollusks. The toxins are thermoresistant compounds therefore, normal cooking, freezing, or smoking cannot destroy them. 

The more classical approach to assess the presence of marine biotoxins in seafood is the in vivo mouse bioassay. It is based on the administration of suspicious extracted shellfish samples to mice, the evaluation of the lethal dose and the toxicity calculation according to reference dose response curves, established with reference material. It provides an indication about the overall toxicity of the sample, as it is not able to differentiate among individual toxins. This is a laborious and time-consuming procedure the accuracy is poor, it is nonspecific and generally not acceptably robust. Moreover, the mouse bioassay suffers from ethical implications and it is in conflict with the EU Directive 86/609 on the Protection of Laboratory Animals. Despite the drawbacks, this bioassay is still the method of reference for almost all types of marine toxins, and is the official method for PSP toxins. 

The investigation of the presence of marine biotoxins in water, phytoplankton, and food has been achieved by several in vitro assays. However, alternatives to the animal bioassay for marine toxins have not been sufficiently evaluated in interlaboratory studies needed to demonstrate their scientific validity. In addition, these methods continue to be time consuming and expensive for intensive monitoring programs, and present some difficulties for their automation. 

A high number of works have been reported the development of LC-MS and LC-MS/MS for the determination of biotoxins in aquatic environments with limits of detection in the range of ng-pg/L concentrations however, much less work have been performed to detect emerging groups of marine biotoxins such as... 

However, the major limitations of instrumental analysis for marine biotoxins are, first sometimes the lack of standards, second the required time of analysis, are expensive techniques to be applied in routine analysis but the main limitation is the lack of information about the possible presence of other nontarget marine biotoxins. 

Current NMFS seafood safety research, both inhouse and through contract studies addresses concerns such as heavy metals, pesticides, petrochemicals, other industrial chemicals, marine biotoxins, and pathogenic organisms. The NMFS is also conducting seafood quality research and developing Federal grade standards and specifications for seafoods. 

Northwest Fisheries Science Center s (NWFSC) Marine Biotoxin Program. Online. Available HTTP (accessed 9 April 2003). 

NWFSC Marine Biotoxin Program, part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, provides information and services to the public, state agencies, tribes, university, and others in the Eastern Pacific region . 

Pierce, R.H., Henry, M.S., Blum, DC., Hamel, S.L., Kirkpatrick, B., Cheng, Y.S., Zhou, Y, Irvin, C.M., Naar, I, Weidner, A., Fleming, L.E., Backer, L.C., Baden, D.G. 2005. Brevetoxin composition in water and marine aerosol along a Florida beach Assessing potential human exposure to marine biotoxins. Harmful Algae 4, 965-972. 

Briggs, L., Rhodes, L., Munday, R., and Towers, N. 1998. Detection of palytoxin using a haemolysis neutralisation assay. Bro-ceedings of the NZMAF Marine Biotoxin Workshop 10, 91-97. 

European Union. 2002. Commission decision of 15 March 2002 laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Directive 91/492/EEC as regards the maximum permitted levels and the methods for analysis of certain marine biotoxins in bivalve molluscs, echinoderms, tunicates and marine gastropods (2002/225/EC). Ojf J Eur Communities, L 75/62. 

Holland, P.T., McNabb, P, Selwood, A.L., MacKenzie, L., and Beuzenberg, Y. 2003. LC-MS methods for marine biotoxins and their introduction into the New Zealand shellfish regulatory programme. In HABTech 2003, Cawthron Report No. 906, ed. Holland, P, Rhodes, L., and Brown, L. Nelson, New Zealand Cawthron Institute, 10-17. 

FAO Food and Nutrition Paper 80. 2004. Marine Biotoxins. Food and Agricultural Organization, Rome. 

Marine biotoxins are prodnced by marine organisms. They have led to numerous cases of seafood poisoning, resulting in various syndromes, such as diarrhetic (DSP), paralytic (PSP), and amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP). 

A major contribntion in initial method development for the LC-MS analysis of marine biotoxins was made by (Juilham and coworkers at the Institute for Marine Biosciences of the National Research Council of Canada. Quilliam [114] reviewed the early development in this field. Initially, the attention was focussed on three... 

Laboratory of the Marine Biotoxins, National institute of Halieutic Research, Casablanca, Morocco... 

Vale, P., Sampayo, M.A.M., 2002. Evaluation of marine biotoxin s accumulation by Acanthocardia tuberculatum from Algarve, Portugal. Toxicon, 40 (5) 511-517. 

Risk Assessments of Marine Biotoxins in Bivalve Mollusks.4... 

Risk assessment is usually divided into four steps hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment, and, finally, risk characterization [1]. In hazard identification, agents capable of exerting negative health effects are identified. Often, the first indications of toxic potential of a compound or mixture are derived from epidemiological studies. The advantage of epidemiological studies is that extrapolation from experimental animal studies is unnecessary. On the other hand, indications from epidemiological studies show that unwanted exposure has already taken place. For marine biotoxins in bivalve mollusks, all known syndromes have been detected as a result of... 

RISK ASSESSMENTS OF MARINE BIOTOXINS IN BIVALVE MOLLUSKS... 

In 2005, the EU Commission and the Community Reference Laboratory on Marine Biotoxins appointed another Working Group on Toxicology to give further advice on risk assessment of lipophilic marine algal toxins in bivalves [4]. 

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