THE CONTINUING ENIGMA OF CIGUATERA

¹ Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543

Research on ciguatera fish poisoning has expanded significantly over the last decade. In large part, this increase in effort is due to the identification of several benthic dinoflagellates as the toxin producers, a discovery soon followed by a series of field and laboratory studies on their distribution, abundance, growth characteristics, and toxin production. Equally important have been advances in the analytical techniques and equipment needed to chemically characterize the toxins. Much of that work benefited significantly from the rapid progress in chemical research on the numerous other toxins produced by marine dinoflagellates.

Despite this surge in activity (summarized in the proceedings of four recent conferences or workshops: Ragelis, 1984; Salvat, 1985; Anderson et al., 1985; this issue), the general state of knowledge on ciguatera remains relatively poor, both in terms of toxin chemistry and the physiological ecology of the causative dinoflagellates. Some important generalizations are gaining acceptance, but discrepancies and disagreements abound. One of the objectives of this review is to place the many recent papers on ciguatera in a current perspective that not only identifies common observations or conclusions, but also accentuates those areas that require more research effort to resolve disagreements or contradictions.

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