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- Title
APPLICATION OF PSP-TOXINS PROFILE AS BIOLOGICAL FINGERPRINT FOR TRACING THE POSSIBLE ORIGIN OF TOXINS CONTAMINATED SHELLFISH.
- Authors
Chun-Kwan Wong; Lai-Hung Lee, Kellie; Chi-Wai Chan, Rickjason
- Abstract
The present study used similarity analysis of paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins (PSP-toxins) profile patterns to analyze epidemiological linkage of a group of toxins contaminated bivalves collected between years 2004 and 2015. A batch of suspected PSP-toxins contaminated geoduck clams was obtained from import freight and different markets in Hong Kong, the samples of which were identified originating from an overseas shellfish harvest region. Laboratory PSP tests including PSP rapid immunoassay, mouse and chemical assays on that batch of samples confirmed the presence of PSP-toxins with violated levels exceeding 80 pg STXeq/100g of shellfish tissues. Related shellfish products imported from the affected region and other non- implicated areas were continuously investigated for PSP-toxins contamination for a period of time after this incident. PSP-toxins in the tainted samples were separated by ion-pair chromatography followed by post-column oxidation to fluorescent derivatives for toxins identification and quantification. STX, NEO and GTX2 were the most abundant toxins found in the samples. These three toxins were also the commonly occurring toxins identified in geoduck clams over the past ten years. Molar distributions (mol%) of PSP-toxins in the samples were analyzed by Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic averages (UPGMA). The toxin profile patterns of the implicated samples were also compared retrospectively with PSP-contaminated geoduck clam samples found in the past 12 years. A cluster with over 96% of similarity level was identified from the implicated samples collected during the incident, suggesting that the group of samples was probably originated from a closely related source/batch. With the application of PSP- toxins profile as specific biochemical fingerprint, the patterns of toxins profile can provide potentially useful information/clue for tracing the possible origin(s) of toxic shellfish in the market.
- Subjects
SEAFOOD poisoning; BIVALVES; TOXINS; SHELLFISH contamination; PACIFIC geoduck; CLAMS
- Publication
Environmental Research Journal, 2016, Vol 10, Issue 3, p317
- ISSN
1935-3049
- Publication type
Article