Prince Edward Island, Canada

Daury, R.W., F.E. Schwab, and M.C. Bateman. 1993. Blood lead concentrations of waterfowl from unhunted and heavily hunted marshes of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Canada. Jour. Wildl. Dis. 29 577-581. 

The first cases of ASP were identified after an outbreak associated with eating cultivated mussels harvested from Prince Edward Island, Canada (Perl et ah, 1990 Todd, 1990b). Domoic acid also has been implicated in the deaths of marine mammals along the U.S. Pacific coast (Scholin et ah, 2000), and human diseases from eating shellfish contaminated with domoic acid have been anecdotally reported in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. 

Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP) was first identified in 1987 from Prince Edward Island, Canada after four people died from eating contaminated mussels. It is caused by domoic acid produced by several species of Pseudonitzschia diatoms. The main contamination problems include mussels, clams, and crabs of the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada. 

In 1987, the first confirmed case of a naturally occurring neurotoxic diatom bloom was reported in Prince Edward Island, Canada, later confirmed to be caused by the production of domoic acid from the pennate diatom Nitzschia pungens, now renamed Pseudo-nitzschia multiseries (Bates et ah, 1989 Subba Rao et ah, 1988). Since this first outbreak, many (but not aU) species of Pseudo-nitzschia have been confirmed to produce domoic acid (as well as some species of Amphora and now Nitzschia (Kotaki et ah, 2000) see Bates, 1998, 2000, for a summary). These potentially toxic species include P. multiseries, P. pseudodelicatissima, P. delicatissima, P. seratia, P. australis, P. pungens, and P.fraudulenta, although it is apparent that not aU species are toxic in aU locations, nor are individual strains toxic under aU conditions. 

Bates, S., Bird, C., de Freitas, A., FoxaH, R., Gilgan, M., Hanic, L., Johnson, G., McCuUoch, A., Odense, P., Pocklington, R., QuiUiam, M., Sim, P., et al. (1989). Pennate diatom Nitzschiapungens as the primary source of domoic acid, a toxin in shellfish from eastern Prince Edward Island, Canada. Can.J. Pish. Aquat. Sci. 46, 1203-1215. 

Chemical investigations dealing with the identification of toxic compound(s) responsible for the toxicity of a mussel, Mytilus edulis, from eastern Prince Edward Island, Canada, has resulted in the identification of domdc acid [116] (95). Domoic acid was originally isolated over 30 years ago from the red alga Chondria armata (96). A further investigation of the toxic mussels has resulted (97) in the isolation of domoic acid D [117] and two geometric isomers, isodomoic acid E3 [118] and isodomoic acid E4 [119]. 

In humans, the acute symptoms of ASP caused by domoic acid include vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, severe headache, and loss of short-term memory. In some cases, confusion, memory loss, disorientation, and even coma are reported. In addition, seizures and myoclonus are observed acutely. Permanent neurologic sequelae, especially cognitive dysfunction, were reportedly most likely in persons who developed neurologic illness within 48 h, males, in older patients (>60 years), and in younger persons with pre-existing illnesses such as diabetes, chronic renal disease, and hypertension with a history of transient ischemic attacks. The first human cases of ASP were identified after an outbreak in Prince Edward Island, Canada since then, there have been cases of ASP in marine mammals and birds in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada. 

The pesticide-treated vs. pesticide-free tobaccos used in this phase of the NCI study were those grown in Prince Edward Island, Canada. The commercial pesticides used on the tobacco included Chlorpyriphos , Trichlorfon , Diphenamide , Methomyl , DDT, Carbaryl , maleic hydraz-ide, and CIO alcohol. The pesticide-treated tobacco properties were described in 1980 by Tso et al. (3973, 3977) ... 

Bates, S. S., et al. Pennate diatom Nitzschia pungens as the primary source of domoic acid, a toxin in shellfish from eastern Prince Edward Island, Canada. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Set, 46, 1203-1215 (1989). 

Invertebrate species Prince Edward Island, Canada Bay of Fundy, Canada... 

Alaa S. Abd-El-Aziz, University of Prince Edward Island, Canada Stephen Craig, Duke University, USA... 

Prince Edward Island Food Technology Centre, PO Box 2000, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, CIA 7N8... 

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