On April 2, the public account "Zhanjiang Information" published an article entitled "Attention! A man in Zhanjiang was poisoned by eating crabs and was sent to the ICU for rescue, this crab must not be eaten! " report.
Reports of crab poisoning in Zhanjiang | Source: Zhanjiang Information Public Account
Crabs are a type of seafood that is no longer common in our lives, what kind of crab did the man in the news report eat that caused him to be sent directly to the hospital for rescue?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" crab poisoning > is not uncommon</h1>
William Wyatt Gill, an English missionary in the Cook Islands, recorded in 1876: "I have personally observed many cases of crab poisoning. One case was poisoning of the church's elderly and his daughter, who reluctantly opened their mouths and spat out a large amount of vomit. At night, the old man died, while the daughter survived. Another case is a middle-aged man who ate a "white-shelled" crab while his wife was doing morning exercises, which never exceeded an hour. To her horror, she returned home to find her husband dead. ”
Do you dare to eat a crab like this? | Western Australia Museum
This is perhaps the earliest recorded event in which humans died from eating crabs. In addition to crabs that can clip people, it seems that they are harmless to individuals and animals, how can they make a human life because they eat crabs?
Coincidentally. In 1928, a Japanese man and his wife and children ate miso soup made with a crab with red eyes. The crab's two claws are about the same size and have a lot of hairs on their legs. The man, his wife, and a pig fed the remaining soup died within hours, while their son ate only the meat in the forceps, drank a little soup, showed numbness and unconsciousness in his limbs, and then saved his life after being injected with a vomiting needle in the hospital.
Poisonous crabs covered in fur | Nathalie Rodrigues / Wikimedia Commons
Similar incidents of death of people or domestic animals due to crab consumption have occurred many times in Japan, Palau, the Philippines and Singapore, and it seems that eating crabs can really be a life-threatening thing!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" >Why are crabs poisonous? </h1>
In nature, many creatures use color, form, smell or sound to warn their enemies: "Don't come to me, I'm not good!" Or "I'm hard to eat, I'm toxic!" This is known as the vigilance effect. The insects we commonly see are the most adept at using vigilance, such as ladybugs and tsubaki elephants that will secrete unpleasant odors to warn predators that I am not good, and many caterpillars use bright colors to warn predators that I am poisonous. I don't know if you've ever seen some crabs with surprisingly beautiful colors: red or green, some with a strong metallic luster. Although the bright color of crabs is not entirely related to the effect of vigilance, there are many brightly colored crabs that are poisonous in reality.
Brightly colored embroidered ridge ripe crab (poisonous) | Zhang Xiao Bee
There is no distinction between poisonous animals in the context of Chinese, but the English language distinguishes the toxic principle of poisonous organisms by two words. The word is poisonous, which can cause poisoning, such as poisonous mushrooms, you will not be poisoned when you touch it, but you will be poisoned when you eat it; the word is venomous, which can secrete venom, such as poisonous snakes, you will not be poisoned when you eat poisonous snakes, but you will be poisoned by its bite, of course, here is just an example, snakes are wild animals, protected by law, can not eat yo.
The poison of crabs belongs to the former. But the crab itself does not have the ability to produce toxins, and the toxins in its body mainly come from food accumulation. Most poisonous crabs (mainly fan crabs) feed on algae or shellfish, and when it eats poisonous algae or shellfish, these toxins accumulate in its body. Some studies have also shown that many factors affect the amount of toxins in crabs, including the environment and season. The increase in the number of toxic algae or shellfish in some seasons will increase the toxin content in the crab during this time.
The pattern love crab is also | poisonous crab Zhang Xiao Bee
The environment is also a factor, and some areas have a small number of toxic algae or shellfish, so crabs distributed here are difficult to obtain toxins from food, and the toxin content in the body is low or even non-existent. In Taiwan, for example, copper-cast crabs are often eaten by people in coastal areas, but there have never been reports of poisoning. In Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan in China, honest love crabs, fine-grained crabs are often sold as "bread crabs", although occasional poisoning reports, but there is no record of death.
The integrity of Sanya, Hainan, loves clean crab | Zhang Xiao Bee
The toxins in crabs are mainly tetrodotoxin and clam toxins, and the content of toxins in different areas of crabs is uneven. The researchers measured the toxicity levels of copper cast crabs and patterned love crabs in different areas of the body from Ishigaki Island, Okinawa, Japan, and the results showed that the toxicity was highest in the appendage muscles, while the toxin content of the cephalothoracic nails and gill muscles was less than one-tenth of the amount.
Tetrodotoxin is found in many species of pufferfish, octopus and fan crabs | Philippe Bourjon / Wikimedia Commons
In fact, crab poisoning is clearly distinguishable from poisoning caused by unhygienic food or poisoning caused by allergies. In a large number of cases, symptoms of poisoning appear within 3 hours of eating the crab, accompanied by nausea, followed by severe vomiting and diarrhea, as well as dizziness, easy drowsiness, weakness of the limbs, numbness of the lips, and paralysis of the muscles. Fatalities are usually related to consumption, with a total of 37 deaths out of 530 recorded poisoning incidents.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="8" Which crabs are poisonous >? </h1>
The poisonous crabs recorded in the literature include: copper cast ripe nyoke crab (Zosimus aeneus), atergatis floridus (patterned crab), embroidered ridge ripe nymph crab (Lophozozymus pictor), granular flat-footed crab (Platypodia granulosa), demania spp., rough erosion crab (Daldorfia horrida), Carpilius convexus, Atergatis integerrimus, Eriphia sebana and Etisus splendidus, it can be seen that most species are of the family Fan Crab.
The fierce chieftain crab | Zhang Xiao Bee
To my surprise, the rough crab is a strange-looking crab, often referred to as a "stone crab" and common in the Hainan market. Although I have not eaten it, many people who have eaten it have said that it is delicious, and I have not heard anyone say that there are uncomfortable symptoms after eating.
Ray's Scaly Crab | Zhang Xiao Bee
The report said that the man had eaten a copper cast ripe crab, but the accompanying picture in the news did not appear as such a crab, but two other kinds: integrity love clean crab and some kind of scaly crab (the picture is blurred, most likely the common Ray's scaly crab). These poisonous crabs usually have a characteristic: the shell is thick and hard, the claws are thick, and the fingers are usually black. Of course, this is not an absolute basis for judging whether a crab is poisonous. But for their own safety, it is still recommended that you do not be curious to try those strange crabs, but choose to eat those more common crabs, the shell is thin and meaty, is it not fragrant? Although there are no follow-up reports, it is hoped that the man can turn the situation around and recover as soon as possible.
Copper cast crab | Sébastien Vasquez / Wikimedia Commons
Pike Crab: Am I not eating well or are you high-sighted |? Figureworm creative
This article is from the species calendar, welcome to forward
If you need to reprint, please contact [email protected]