Distribution of tetrodotoxin in pufferfish collected from coastal waters of Sihanouk Ville, Cambodia.
In Cambodia, fatal food poisonings associated with the consumption of pufferfish have occurred for decades, but the causative species or toxins have never been documented. Herein, we investigated the toxicity of three pufferfish species of the genus Lagocephalus collected from the coastal waters of Sihanouk Ville, one of the main regions where poisonings have occurred. L. wheeleri and L. spadiceus were non-toxic, whereas L. lunaris was toxic and all of its body tissues exhibited toxicity levels exceeding the safety limit for human consumption (10 mouse units/g). Tetrodotoxin (TTX) was identified as the main toxin in this species; no paralytic shellfish poison(s) were detected. Consequently, we can confirm pufferfish to be a hazardous reservoir of TTX in Sihanouk Ville. It is likely that L. lunaris is one of the causative species of past pufferfish poisonings that have occurred in Cambodia.
Ngy
Laymithuna
L
Graduate School of Science and Technology, Nagasaki University, 114 Bunkyo-machi, Nagasaki 8528521, Japan.
Taniyama
Shigeto
S
Shibano
Keisuke
K
Yu
Chun-Fai
CF
Takatani
Tomohiro
T
Arakawa
Osamu
O
D000818:Animals; D002160:Cambodia; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D023721:Tetraodontiformes / Q000378:metabolism*; D013779:Tetrodotoxin / Q000032:analysis*
D013779:Tetrodotoxin