Depuration of paralytic shellfish toxins in Japanese scallop (Patinopecten yessoensis) in natural environment

Abstract

To study the paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) depuration in Japanese scallop Patinopecten yessoensis in natural environment, Japanese scallops naturally contaminated with paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins in the Dayao Bay in the northern Huanghai Sea are transited to Qipanmo waters in the Bohai Sea of no reported PSTs incidents. The levels and profile of PSTs during 30-day depuration are detected by the high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD). The results show that the toxicity of the PSTs in soft tissues decreases to a relatively low level at Day 9. Moreover, the depurated ratio at the early stage of the PSTs depuration is higher than that at the later stage. The toxicity analysis of dissected organs reveals that the digestive gland is the most contaminated PSTs part, which is of important implication for the human health and scallop aquiculture. The mortality of Japanese scallops during PSTs depuration experiment is relevant to PSTs level in the soft tissue.