Recently, there have been a number of food poisoning incidents caused by eating mud snails in Zhangzhou City. After investigation, the patient purchased pickled mud snails from mobile vendors, and after eating them, clinical symptoms such as numbness, vomiting, fatigue and other clinical symptoms appeared, and the Zhangzhou Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention detected a high concentration of paralytic shellfish toxins in the remaining mud snails after eating, combined with the epidemiological investigation results, it was preliminarily determined to be a food poisoning incident caused by eating paralyzing shellfish toxin-contaminated mud snails.
Mud snails are molluscs of the mollusks Phylum Posterior gill suborder Adiscosa. The shell is ovoid in shape and the shell is thin and brittle. Mud snails are intertidal benthic animals that live on sedimentary or muddy mudflats in low- and moderate-tide areas, crawling on the surface of the tidal flats after low tide, feeding on benthic algae, organic detritus, invertebrate eggs, juveniles and small crustaceans. Mud snails are one of the main molluscs that can be eaten, and their diet is mostly salted and eaten raw.
Paralytic shellfish toxins can be divided into four categories: carbamate toxins, including stone house clam toxins (STX), neolithic clam toxins (NEO), knee groove algae toxins (GTX); N-sulfocarbamoyl toxins, including C1, C2, C3, C4, GTX5 (B1) and GTX6 (B2); Decarbamoyltoxins) and deoxydecarbamoyl toxins.
Symptoms of shell poisoning are: initial numbness of the lips, tongue, and fingertips, followed by numbness in the legs, buttocks, and neck, followed by movement disorders. Symptoms of intoxication vary, but most people are conscious, some patients are accompanied by dizziness, headache, nausea and vomiting, as the course of the disease progresses, breathing difficulties gradually worsen, severe cases can die due to respiratory muscle paralysis, mortality rate of about 5% to 18%. The occurrence of shellfish toxin poisoning develops rapidly, and there is no specific detoxification method.
I hereby remind my friends that we will not buy or eat mud snails that may be contaminated with shellfish toxin in the near future, and be vigilant against paralytic shellfish toxin poisoning. Once you have experienced physical discomfort symptoms after eating seafood such as mud snails, you should go to the hospital as soon as possible and take the initiative to inform the doctor of your dietary history.
Source: Zhangzhou Disease Control, Fujian Market Supervision Bureau