Causes
Aflotoxins can & do affect aquaculture feeds, and their presence may cause pale gills, poor blood clotting ability, as well as less than optimum growth rates. The negative results will vary according to the species being farmed. They particularly affect carp. Liver tumours have been reported in many instances.
Ochratoxins cause histopathological lesions of the liver and also pathological signs including necrotic, pale and swollen kidneys and high mortality.
Moreover, these mycotoxins reduce body weight gain and feed conversion ratio.
- Fumonisins can lower body weight gain, suppress growth and cause histopathological lesions. Again, the primary target organs of this mycotoxin are the kidneys and the liver, also pancreas.
- Type A trichothecenes reduce feed consumption and growth rate. Lower Hematocrit values are typically found.
- Type B trichothecene deoxynivaleno decreases body weight gain and growth rate in shrimp as well as in fish. as in fish.Additionally, these mycotoxins cause food refusal and reduced feed efficiency .
All these must be kept under control by up to date storage methods, buying feeds only from reliable and certified manufacturers, and constant examination of feed, as well as not purchasing excessive amounts, which can often lead to questionable storage methods.
According to Food Safety Watch, some relatively new research by French scientists, have indicated the potential of a risk from mycotoxins in shellfish, especially mussels,as they discovered certain strains of Penicillium fungi are found in farmed sites.
Their investigations originally began to estimate the toxic risks which might arise if Penicillium was present and identified in bivalve molluscs.They discovered that strains isolated and identified from shellfish were more toxic than others found and identified in the environment around the farmed species.
When these isolates were subsequently cultured some were more toxic if they were cultured on an extract of mussel flesh, than if they were cultured in a more traditional yeast extract. This strongly suggests that such mycotoxins could become much more dangerous if captured and eaten by humans if they were carrying these fungi.
They discovered also the mycotoxin patulin in some strains of Penecillium antartcticum .
These findings strongly suggest , that regular monitoring of all bivalves for human consumption, should be monitored for mycotoxin presence, as it is likely a cause of
some of the reported cases of shellfish food poisoning .
Prognosis
Treatment
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