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Ciguatera fish poisoning in the Caribbean. Smithsonian Contributions to the Marine Sciences.

Journal article published in 2009 by P. A. Tester, R. L. Feldman, A. W. Nau, M. A. Faust, R. W. Litaker
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Preprint: policy unknown
Question mark in circle
Postprint: policy unknown
Question mark in circle
Published version: policy unknown

Abstract

Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is a significant illness in the Caribbean. Local fishers and natives attempt to avoid CFP by applying traditional knowledge concern-ing where and when certain fish species are likely to be ciguatoxic, but this knowledge is incomplete. Evidence gathered over the past decades indicates that CFP events are increasing and becoming more unpredictable, thereby posing a greater threat to local inhabitants as well as tourists. The current understanding of CFP distribution is from studies nearly a decade old and generated largely by self-reported CFP incidents to a call-in “hotline” in Miami, Florida. To better guide resource allocation and focus future research, an active survey method was used to uniformly query public health professionals and fisheries officials on the occurrence of CFP. Points of contact from each of these two groups were compiled for the 24 Caribbean island countries and territories and 9 mainland countries bordering the Caribbean. An outcome of this project will be to pro-vide public health agencies, resource managers, and others with information they can use in developing CFP tracking systems and effective public education programs. The long-term goal of associated efforts is to provide accurate and affordable monitoring tools for predicting the onset of CFP events.