Study of a mortality event of Lagocephalus lagocephalus in el Hierro

Abstract

Migration of some species of fish may contribute with special changes in the balance of ecosystem. And, secondly, this fact also may affect to the conditions of some diseases to show higher or lower prevalence in some particular areas. Oceanic puffer (Lagocephalus lagocephalus) is emerging and increasing in density in new geographical regions, such as the Canary Islands. Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) is one of the most important illnesses caused by the consumption of fish all over the world. This study focuses in the analysis of five Lagocephalus lagocephalus found in El Hierro to evaluate CTX-like toxicity in their muscle. Muscle samples of oceanic puffer were prepared for ciguatoxin extraction and later analysis for cytotoxicity test by N2a cellbased assay (CBA). Results obtained showed that all oceanic puffer analyzed in this study were positive for CTX-like toxicity, with differences in the CTX concentration for each fish obtained by semi-quantification. This study constitutes the first report about the presence of CTX-like toxicity in oceanic puffer samples (Lagocephalus lagocephalus) in the Canary Islands and Spain. The work highlights the importance of this finding to understand the role of this species on the marine food chain on transferring or sharing the CTXs in the environment.