Mussel poisoning

Mussel poisoning is the toxic reaction that follows eating contaminated mussels. It most seriously refers to the severe, sometimes fatal intoxication that occurs when mussels have been feeding on red-tide dinoflagellates, especially Gonyaulax species, and have stored potent alkaloid toxins in their tissues. These phycotoxins attack the nervous system and are not destroyed by cooking, so prevention depends entirely on monitoring harvesting waters, closing affected beds during algal blooms, and laboratory testing of shellfish flesh before it is marketed. Regulatory programs classify growing areas and enforce testing for paralytic, diarrhetic, and amnesic shellfish toxins.