A bulletin for the Australian Food Industry    August 2000

A bulletin for the Australian Food Industry    August 2000

Contents: Bacteria in minimally processed lettuce | More on monosodium glutamate | Wallis Lake oyster contamination | Salmonellae in fruit juices | Algal blooms | Safe Food Australia | Refrigerated retail cabinets | Ciguatera poisoning

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Ciguatera poisoning

We commented on ciguatera poisoning in September 1996 following a number of reported incidents in Brisbane associated with consumption of Spanish Mackerel. In the Medical Journal of Australia 172 2000 160, Karalis and others report on three clusters of ciguatera poisoning involving 26 people in the inner Sydney area. Tropical reef fish were implicated in each incident.

Ciguatera poisoning results from the consumption of fish containing one of a number of ciguatera toxins found in the tissue of fish which feed on the dinoflagellate alga Gambierdiscus toxicus. This organism is commonly associated with dead coral hence the role of tropical reef fish in the incidence of the poisoning.

Symptoms of ciguatera intoxication in breast fed infants whose mothers have consumed affected fish have been reported. There was evidence that this occurred in one of the Sydney incidents. However the lack of any testing facilities to detect or quantify the toxin in breast milk made confirmation impossible. The authors highlight the lack of readily available testing facilities as a potential barrier to effective public health action.

In a complementary review in the same issue (Medical Journal of Australia 172 2000. 176) Dr Leigh Lehane, National Office of Animal and Plant Health, Canberra, speculates that the incidence of ciguatera will increase in association with global warming and widespread bleaching of coral. Dr Lehane supports the authors of the previous paper in calling for ciguatera to be made a notifiable disease.