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Final reports of EuroCigua published by EFSA.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published the final scientific report of the project Risk characterization of ciguatera poisoning in Europe, EuroCigua, together with three final reports corresponding to the specific agreements of the project. The final scientific report includes all the activities carried out during the almost four-and-a-half-year duration of the project, from April 2016 to January 2021.

The Spanish Food Safety and Nutrition Agency (AESAN) has led this project, assuming the coordination and management tasks, together with fourteen scientific institutions from six Member States (Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Greece and Cyprus), creating a multidisciplinary team of excellence with an Advisory Board consisting of leading international experts on ciguatoxins and European institutions such as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Joint Research Center (JRC).

EuroCigua is divided into four specific grants:

  • Management and Scientific Coordination, led by AESAN;
  • Epidemiology, coordinated by the National Centre for Epidemiology of the Carlos III Health Institute (CNE-ISCIII);
  • Evaluation of ciguatoxins in seafood and environment, coordinated by the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA);
  • Characterisation of ciguatoxins present in the EU, including the development of reference materials, led by the University of Vigo (UVIGO).

The final scientific report summarizes the main results of each of the research areas of the project. These results have allowed the project to confirm the emergence of Ciguatera Poisoning (CP) in the European Union, and it identified several fish species with ciguatoxins in Madeira and the Canary Islands. Additionally, the presence of Gambierdiscus in the Mediterranean Sea, Cyprus and Greece has also been confirmed, as well as the first notification of several species of dinoflagellates in the Balearic Islands. Analytical methods to characterize ciguatoxins have been developed, and C-CTX-1 was identified as the main responsible for CP in the Macaronesia area. In addition, reference materials were produced using novel developed techniques.

These four final scientific reports provide a comprehensive contribution to the risk characterization of CP in the EU and open new objectives and challenges that could be subject of funding from other projects in order to complete the risk characterization of ciguatera poisoning in Europe.

The final scientific report is available at the following link.

The 3 final reports corresponding to each of the Specific agreements of the EuroCigua project are available at the following links:

Epidemiological characteristics of ciguatera poisoning

Evaluation of ciguatoxins

Characterization of ciguatoxins