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Gulf Fish Cause Food Poisoning

Posted Feb 6, 08 8:41 AM CST in Science & Health 

(Newser) – The Food and Drug Administration has confirmed outbreaks of food poisoning among people eating fish from the northern Gulf of Mexico. Ciguatera poisoning is caused by toxins from poisonous algae that have accumulated in the tissue of large fish. The higher the fish is on the food chain, the more poison can build up, so fish like grouper, snapper, amberjack, and barracuda are the most dangerous, reports the AP.

Ciguatera is common in tropical waters, but was thought rare in the northern Gulf. The fish linked to the illnesses were caught in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, a 56-square-mile area about 100 miles off the Texas-Louisiana border. The FDA is now recommending processors not purchase fish from that area. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, vertigo, and joint pain, as well as possible long-term neurological effects.

Source Associated Press

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Large fish can concentrate high levels of toxins within their bodies, making them dangerous to consume.   (KRT Photos)
Filipino fish vendors wait for customers at the Villa Arevalo public market, the same wet market that sold a Barracuda fish that sickened 32 people in Iloilo city in central Philippines in August of 2006....   (Associated Press)
Red grouper are boxed on the dock at Madeira Beach Seafood Company, a commercial fishing operation, in Madeira Beach, Florida, September 30, 2005.   (KRT Photos)
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fish  • Gulf of Mexico  • food poisoning  • nausea  • vomiting  • joint pain


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