Ciguatera, an Emerging Human Poisoning in Europe

Abstract

Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is a food intoxication commonly affecting mainly the Caribbean Sea, Polynesia and other areas in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Reports of CFP cases in several countries of Europe have most often resulted from Europeans travelling to CFP endemic areas. Recently however, dinoflagellates of genus Gambierdiscus, the producer of the toxins that cause CFP, have been detected in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean of the northern hemisphere and in the Mediterranean Sea. Actually, CFP cases have been confirmed in the Canary Islands and Madeira (Macaronesia area in the Eastern Atlantic). It is therefore very important to analyze the risks of ciguatera poisoning in Europe. With this, government of the Canary Islands decided to take preventive actions to prevent additional outbreaks of ciguatera in that area. With this work we establish the risk of consuming predatory fish, those most likely to have the toxin causing CFP, a total of 711 predatory fish samples were analyzed. Our work indicates that specific areas near Canary Islands, activity type, fish species and fish size determine the probability of catching fish containing ciguatoxin. Further, the possible contribution of climate change to the distribution of the toxin producers and ciguateric fish is discussed.