More than 750 dead and dying birds were observed at the Paul S. Sarbanes Ecosystem Restoration Project at Poplar Island, Maryland, USA (Chesapeake Bay) in summer 2012. Avian botulism was suspected based on clinical signs. At the same time, a bloom of Microcystis was also ongoing in an impoundment on the island, and high levels…

CiguaPIRE researchers from the US, Canada, Norway, UK and Hong Kong recently met at a vineyard outside Nantes in France, in order to summarize the state-of-the-art in research on Ciguatera Fish Poisoning and planned the next months ahead. The Norwegian team is involved in ciguatoxin detection, identification, and biotransformation in relevant fish species. The Norwegian…

This new initiative from the University of Ghent intends to harness the expertise and infrastructure available in Europe by strengthening the capacity of the Southern partners to tackle the mycotoxin problem and the associated food safety issues. The aim of the 3-year project is to identify and test safe and efficient mitigation strategies to reduce…

Data on neurotoxicological effects of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON), also called vomitoxin, are limited. Orally exposed laboratory (mice, rats) and domestic animals (pig, chicken) show behavioural changes such as feed refusal, increased locomotor activity and aggressive behaviour, and DON plasma concentrations at ppm-level result in vomiting in pigs and humans. Preliminary observations suggest that DON…

Azaspiracids (AZAs) are marine algal toxins that can cause food poisoning in humans. Azaspiracids belong to a family of more than 50 polyether toxins originating from marine dinoflagellates such as Azadinium spinosum. Figure 1: Structure of azaspiracid-1 Boric acid gel can bind selectively to compounds containing vic-diols or α-hydroxycarboxylic acids via formation of reversible boronate…

4-Deoxynivalenol (DON) is the most prevalent Fusarium mycotoxin, and it frequently occurs in grains such as wheat, barley, oats and rye all over the world. The ingestion of DON contaminated feed has been shown to result in pro-inflammatory effects as well as various pathological lesions, including the necrosis of the intestinal epithelium in several animal…