Toxin levels and profiles in microalgae from the north-Western Adriatic Sea--15 years of studies on cultured species.

ABSTRACT: The Northern Adriatic Sea is the area of the Mediterranean Sea where eutrophication and episodes related to harmful algae have occurred most frequently since the 1970s. In this area, which is highly exploited for mollusk farming, the first occurrence of human intoxication due to shellfish consumption occurred in 1989, nearly 10 years later than other countries in Europe and worldwide that had faced similar problems. Until 1997, Adriatic mollusks had been found to be contaminated mostly by diarrhetic shellfish poisoning toxins (i.e., okadaic acid and dinophysistoxins) that, along with paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins (i.e., saxitoxins), constitute the most common marine biotoxins. Only once, in 1994, a toxic outbreak was related to the occurrence of paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins

SUBMITTER: Pistocchi R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3280532 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature