Early Warning Systems for Gambierdiscus and other benthic harmful algae: sampling challenges
Authors/Creators
- 1. Ocean Tester, LLC, Beaufort, North Carolina, U.S.A.
- 2. Institute of Marine Sciences, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
- 3. Institut Louis Malardé, Papeete-Tahiti, French Polynesia.
- 4. Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, UMR 7035 ECOSEAS, Nice, France
- 5. Observatorio Canario de HABs, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain
- 6. CSS, Inc. under Contract to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Description
Ciguatera poisoning (CP) is a long-neglected foodborne disease affecting tropical regions of the Pacific and Indian Oceans and the Caribbean Sea. CP was raised by the Pacific Nations at the 32nd Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries in 2016. In 2017, it was an agenda item at the 11th Session of the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Foods. The committee requested scientific advice from FAO and WHO, so late 2018 a group of experts met to develop the Joint FAO-WHO Report of the Expert Meeting on Ciguatera Poisoning that provided risk management options for CP. In parallel with this, an interagency global ciguatera strategy was developed among FAO, IOC, IAEA and WHO. Building on these initiatives, these three UN Agencies convened an expert meeting to develop Joint FAO, IOC, IAEA Technical guidance for the implementation of Early Warning Systems (EWSs) for harmful algal blooms (HABs). The EWS approach includes monitoring protocols for sampling benthic genera like Gambierdiscus and Fukuyoa that produce toxins responsible for CP. Advances in Gambierdiscus and Fukuyoa taxonomy, better understanding of their global distribution and toxicity and species-specific molecular identification and enumeration methods help make this possible.