Shellfish toxins are the most dangerous marine biotoxins, and produced by free living micro-algae. Shellfish toxins are concentrated in flesh, and poisoning occurs when these contaminated shellfish is consumed. They can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP), diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP), neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP), amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP) and azaspiracid shellfis...

Shellfish allergy is a frequent, long-lasting, life-threatening disorder. As shellfish consumption increases, the number of allergic reactions to shellfish is expected to continue to rise as well. During the past decade, much has been learned about the allergens involved in shellfish allergy. Potential cross-reacting allergens between shellfish and other arthropods have been identified. As our ...

Fish and marine mammal consumption are an important pathway for human exposure to mercury. The low mercury content in shellfish poses a low mercury health risk to people who consume shellfish. The objectives of this study are to detect mercury concentrations in different species of shellfish and to calculate the mercury health risk from shellfish consumption among traditional residents near nor...

We describe the evaluation of a nested reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) procedure for the detection of small round-structured viruses (SRSVs) in molluscan shellfish and the application of this assay for the detection of SRSVs in commercially produced shellfish and in shellfish implicated in outbreaks of gastroenteritis. The range of virus strains detected and the sensitivity of detection were...

On intertidal mudflats, reef-building shellfish, like the Pacific oyster and the blue mussel, provide a myriad of ecosystem services. Monitoring intertidal shellfish with high spatiotemporal resolution is important for fisheries, coastal management and ecosystem studies. Here, we explore the potential of X(TerraSAR-X) and C-band (Radarsat-2) dual-polarized SAR data to map shellfish densities, s...

Crustacean shellfish allergy is an important cause of food allergy and anaphylaxis in Asia. The major allergen in shellfish allergy is tropomyosin, a pan-allergen that is also found in house dust mites and cockroaches. Tropomyosins from house dust mites (HDMs) have a high sequence homology to shellfish tropomyosins, and cross-reactivity between HDM and shrimp tropomyosins has been demonstrated....

In the 1990s, Norwalk-like viruses (NLVs) were identified in patient specimens as the primary pathogen associated with shellfish-borne gastroenteritis in the United States. Identification of these viruses from implicated shellfish has been difficult due to inefficient recovery of viruses, natural polymerase chain reaction (PCR) inhibitors in shellfish, and low virus contamination. Recent improv...

Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) is a public health risk worldwide, resulting from the consumption of seafood that has bioaccumulated toxins produced by microalgae.1 Bivalve shellfish (such as mussels, clams, oysters and scallops) pose a particularly high risk as they feed by filtration, providing a method of toxin accumulation. Algae responsible for causing PSP include several species of th...

Evidence for shellfish toxin illness in British Columbia (BC) on the west coast of Canada can be traced back to 1793. For over two hundred years, domestically acquired bivalve shellfish toxin illnesses in BC were solely ascribed to paralytic shellfish poisonings caused by algal blooms of Alexandrium. This changed in 2011, when BC experienced its first outbreak of diarrhetic shellfish poisoning ...