Ciguatera research efforts face many social and environmental challenges this century.
Here we provide an overview of the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century regarding the many facets of ciguatera, including the complex nature of this illness, the biological/environmental factors affecting the causative organisms, their toxins, vectors, detection methods, human-health oriented responses, and ultimately an outlook towards the future. Exacerbating these complexities are anthropogenic or natural changes occurring in global marine habitats, e.g., climate change, greenhouse-gas induced physical oceanic changes, overfishing, invasive species, and even the international seafood trade. Ciguatera-derived food insecurity is particularly extreme for small island-nations, where fear of intoxication can lead to fishing restrictions by region, species, or size. When consumed, ciguatoxins are biotransformed and can bioaccumulate throughout the food-web via complex pathways. Ciguatera is caused by the consumption of (primarily) finfish contaminated with ciguatoxins, potent neurotoxins produced by benthic single-cell microalgae. One threat to these securities is ciguatera poisoning worldwide, the most commonly reported non-bacterial seafood-related illness. Resources and ecosystem services, provided by the marine environment, contribute nutrition, income, and health benefits for communities. Globally, the livelihoods of over a billion people are affected by changes to marine ecosystems, both structurally and systematically.
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