What is the best indicator bivalve to monitor paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins?
Ulysses M. Montojo1,2, Masaaki Kodama1, Shigeru Sato1, Elsa F. Furio2 and Yasuwo Fukuyo3 1: School of Fishery Sciences, Kitasato University, 2: National Fisheries Research and Development Institute 3: Asian Natural Environmental Science Center, The University of Tokyo In the Philippines, paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) due to Pyrodinium bahamense var. compressum was first recognized in 1983 in Samar Is., followed by several succeeding incidents in various parts of the country, which resulted in more than 2000 cases including fatal ones. Because of lack of public awareness on the problem, the unnecessary scare has spread over the country. People often avoided consuming most of all the marine products even in red tide–free area. Under these circumstances, the Philippine government established a monitoring system on PSP in which shellfish toxicity is regularly monitored in relation to the occurrence of toxic dinoflagellates. In the monitoring survey, two toxic species, Alexandrium min
