Here's an interesting twist on seafood safety.
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> ProMED Digest Sunday, June 18 2006 Volume 2006 : Number 280
>
> Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 10:52:35 -0400 (EDT)
> From: ProMED-mail <promed@promed.isid.harvard.edu>
> Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Food poisoning, fatal, turtle meat - Indonesia (Siberut Island)
>
> FOOD POISONING, FATAL, TURTLE MEAT - INDONESIA (SIBERUT ISLAND)
> ********************************************
> A ProMED-mail post
> <http://www.promedmail.org
> ProMED-mail is a program of the
> International Society for Infectious Diseases
> <http://www.isid.org>
>
> Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006
> From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
> Source: TVNZ.co.nz [edited]
> <http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411366/750535>
>
>
> Ten people have died and another has been hospitalized after consuming
> turtle meat on a remote island off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia.
> The deaths occurred late last week after residents on Siberut Island ate
> turtle meat during a wedding party.
>
> Local residents say it is a local Mentawai tradition to consume turtle meat
> at weddings. The family fell ill with vomiting after eating turtle soup
> made from a turtle they had captured. Three children died that day and 7
> others died in hospital.
>
> A local health official says preliminary findings indicate the fatalities
> were due to food poisoning after consuming turtle meat.
>
> - --
> ProMED-mail
> <promed@promedmail.org>
>
> [Siberut Island is a small island off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.
> It is under the control of the Indonesian government, but remains separate
> from the rest of the country. Siberut Island is home to the Mentawai
> people, who are native to the island, having had their first encounter with
> the western world in the 1970s.
>
> A map of Indonesia showing the location of the island can be found at:
> <http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dsiberut%2520island%2520map%26prssweb%3DSearch%26ei%3DUTF-8%26fr%3DFP-tab-web-t376%26x%3Dwrt%26fr2%3Dtab-web&w=300&h=300&imgurl=www.apsaras.com%2Fgraphics%2Fmap-siberut.gif&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.apsaras.com%2Fsiberut-summary.html&size=15.3kB&name=map-siberut.gif&p=siberut+island+map&type=gif&no=1&tt=2&ei=UTF-8>
>
> ProMED would appreciate more information regarding this and similar events.
> Whether this outbreak represents the below entity is not clear from the
> posting.
>
> Episodes of sea turtle poisoning can be found in the literature. One
> example was posted in the Sea Turtle List-serve <cturtle@lists.ufl.edu> by
> a marine conservation officer in the Solomon Islands:
>
> "28 people (20 children and 8 adults) of Niniveh Village in Marovo Lagoon,
> western province, Solomon Islands suffered nausea, vomiting, abdominal
> pains, needles and pins and general weakness after eating turtle meat
> (which turtle species is yet to be confirmed) on the evening of 16 Jan
> 2001. The symptoms described occurred 4-6 hours after consumption of turtle
> meat. The said people consumed only turtle meat (no other protein source
> consumed). Those who did not consume turtle meat did not experience the
> symptoms.
>
> 6 people (all children between 3 months - 11 years old) out of the 28
> people died within 5 days. Observers reported that the turtle, when caught,
> was weak; upon being butchered, it was reported to have gut contents
> smaller than usual; there was a strong smell of urea/urine in the gut, and
> the meat was unusually soft."
>
> Other citations include (both from Madagascar):
>
> Yasumoto T: Fish poisoning due to toxins of microalgal origin in the
> Pacific. Toxicon 1998; 36:1515-18:
>
> "From the meat of a turtle, _Chelonia mydas_, implicated in fatal
> intoxication, lyngbyatoxin A was identified. . . As turtles feed on sea
> grass, contaminating blue-green algae belonging to genus _Lyngbya_ were
> deduced to be the source of the toxin."
>
> Ranaivoson G, Champetier de Ribes G, Mamy ER, et al: Mass food poisoning
> after eating sea turtle in the Antalaha district. [Article in French] Arch
> Inst Pasteur Madagascar. 1994; 61:84-6:
>
> Abstract: In December 1994, a mass food poisoning through ingestion of
> turtle affected about 60 persons on the northeastern coast of Madagascar.
> The prevailing clinical signs were digestive (nausea, vomiting, dysphagia,
> acute stomatitis) and might persist during several weeks. The poisoning
> attack rate was 48 percent with a lethality of 7.7 percent. Such [an]
> accident, even if rare in Madagascar, requires a structured organization to
> control sea products poisoning and to set up adequate prevention measures.
>
> Turtle poisoning (chelonitoxication) appears to be caused by eating the
> flesh of certain marine turtles (Green Sea Turtle, Hawksbill Turtle,
> Leatherback Turtle). Turtle meat is considered a delicacy in many
> countries. Hawksbills carry a toxin in their skin called chelonitoxin,
> which may be accumulated through the food chain as noted above. People who
> eat the skin and/or meat of the turtle can experience nausea, a burning
> sensation of the lips, tongue, and mouth, difficulty in swallowing, and a
> tightness in the chest, skin rash, enlargement of the liver, or even coma
> and death. - Mod.LL]
-- Liz Brown Assistant Professor Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences University of Alaska Fairbanks PO Box 1549 Dillingham, Alaska 99576 907-842-1265 fax 907-842-3202 http://seagrant.uaf.edu/map
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