SEAFOOD TOXINS - POISONING BY BIVALVE CON SUMPTION

Seafood toxins are becoming increasingly important as etiologic agents of foodborne diseases around the world. This is partly because of gre ater awareness of the potential problems of the paralytic shellfish po isoning (PSP), neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP), diarrheic shellfi sh poisoning (DSP) and more recently, a new type of seafood toxicity, called amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP). This review describes the mo lluskan shellfish and biotoxins implicated, the development of standar dized methods for detecting and quantifying these toxins, the importan ce of the economic loss resulting from their presence and the establis hment of regular chemical monitoring for marine toxins.