Marine finfish most commonly implicated in ciguatera fish poisoning include groupers, barracudas, snappers, jacks, mackerel, and triggerfish.
Global warming and reef disturbance are thought to be the cause of the increased amounts of dinoflagellate which cause the formation of ciguatera toxins in the flesh of the fish. How does this happen?
Harvesters and divers disturb reefs and cause the coral to die. Dinoflagellate which is an algae species breeds on dead coral. Warmer ocean waters caused by global warming accelerate the growth of dinoflagellate. Fish feed off of the reefs and ingest the toxins.
In an article from the Australian Medical Journal, Dr Leigh Lehane speaks of ciguatera as becoming one of the most common food-borne illnesses related to the consumption of finfish and believes the number of cases to rise dramatically in the near future.
When you buy fish, you can’t detect the disease on the fish itself. The fish smells and tastes no different. In addition, ciguatera toxins are not destroyed by cooking like most toxins related to food poisoning.
Symptoms of this disease usually begin within hours of eating infected fish. Vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pains are the first to appear, but gastrointestinal symptoms are not always present. You could experience pain, sensory and neurological disturbances which could persist for weeks, months or even years.
Ciguatera was limited to fish in southern waters and it wasn’t even known to exist in the northern part of the world. With the increase in inter-regional transportation of seafood products, human poisonings have expanded the beyond the original geographic range.
