APPARENT PARALYTIC SHELLFISH POISONING IN CAPTIVE HERRING-GULLS FED COMMERCIAL SCALLOPS

This report describes an acute poisoning event observed in captive her ring gull (Larus argentatus) chicks fed a batch of store-bought scallo ps. They developed a characteristic acute syndrome, that has not hithe rto been reported in birds and the cause of which remains to be identi fied. We suggest that it is a variant of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) insofar as it was paralytic and caused by shellfish. However, a nalyses by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to identify known tox ins (saxitoxins, brevetoxins, domoic acid) in the scallops were negati ve. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.