Event Abstract

Back to Event

A web application as a contribution to the risk analysis of the Ciguatera in the Canary Islands

Francisco Cabrera-Suárez1, Alberto Bilbao-Sieyro2, Yeray Perez-González2, Roberto Castro-Rodríguez3, Carlos Torres-López3, Ricardo Sánchez-Herrera4 and Ninoska Pavón-Salas2*
  • 1 Dirección General de Pesca. Gobierno de Canarias., Spain
  • 2 Management of the Rural Environment of Canarias SAU, Spain
  • 3 Independent researcher, Spain
  • 4 NovaSoftMedia S.L., Spain

In Spain the data of the catches by professional fishing sector are managed through the official first sale software (OFSS). This process is only carried out in authorized facilities by the competent authority (Real Decreto 418/2015). In the Canary Islands, these centres have computer equipment with access to the OFSS for the electronic transmission of data to the competent authority. The Ciguatera Fish Poisoning (CFP), commonly known as ciguatera, is the main disease caused by marine nature toxins worldwide (Friedman et al., 2017). After the first endemic cases in humans reported in the Canary Islands in 2004 (Peréz-Arellano et al., 2005), it is currently considered an emergent disease of urgent mandatory declaration (Orden de 17 de agosto de 2015). According to Sanchez-Henao et al. (2019) the Canary Islands are already an area of endemic expansion of the CFP. Since 2009, the Directorate General of Fisheries (DGP) of the Canary Islands Government monitors catches of professional fishing in accordance with an official protocol that considers certain species and weights. The objective is the control of fishing species potentially susceptible to being carriers of ciguatoxins and, depending on the analysis, decides whether the fish can be incorporated into the commercial chain or not. The communication process - between fishing operators, administration and laboratory - about the presence or absence of ciguatoxins in fresh fish is done through e-mail and paper documents. Among the legal competences of the DGP are the control and monitoring of fishing activities in relation to landings and first sale, in coordination with other competent administrations. In addition, DGP promotes and supervises studies of interest for the Autonomous Community in fisheries matters. Therefore, one of the tasks developed within the framework of the Mimar Project - http://mimarproyecto.com - is the development of a web application (desktop and mobile phone) to work in an integrated way with the OFSS. We intend to automate certain processes related to the evaluation and communication on the presence (or absence) of ciguatoxin in fresh fish. We specifically seek (i) to generate suitable formats for data recording, (ii) to have a traceability interface to consult in real time what stage each sample is in, (iii) configure communications between the different actors, (iv) export of records, etc. This communication shows the information flow charts that arise in the application between the fishing operators, the administration and the laboratory, all in an integrated way with the OFSS. The next steps (from May 2019) will be the presentation and use of the application in an association of professional fishermen (as a point of first sale), and after the identification of problems, its implementation as a pilot action in all authorized establishments of first sale in the Canary Islands. Then, adaptations could be made in the flow charts for each of the partner regions of the Mimar Project, that is, Madeira, Senegal, Mauritania and Cape Verde. In short, the proposed integration can lead to an efficient improvement both in the communication and in the evaluation of the CFP within the framework of the food security risk analysis (FAO/WHO, 2016; EFSA, 2017). If a satisfactory experience is achieved, it could be implemented in the current official ciguatoxin monitoring system carried out by the DGP in the Canary Islands.

Acknowledgements

This work was developed within the framework of the MIMAR Project (MAC/4.6d/066), with the support of the European Union (EU) and co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (EDRF) and the INTERREG V-A Spain-Portugal MAC 2014-2020 (Madeira-Azores-Canarias).

References

EFSA (2017) When food is cooking up a storm. Proven recipes for risk communications. Parma. doi: 10.2805/119491. FAO/WHO (2016) Risk communication applied to food safety. Rome. Available at: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i5863e.pdf. Friedman, M. A. et al. (2017) ‘An Updated Review of Ciguatera Fish Poisoning: Clinical, Epidemiological, Environmental, and Public Health Management’, Marine Drugs, 15 (3)(72), p. 41. doi: 10.3390/md15030072. Orden de 17 de agosto de 2015, por la que se modifican los Anexos I, II y III del Decreto 165/1998, de 24 de septiembre, por el que se crea la Red Canaria de Vigilancia Epidemiológica y se establecen las normas para regular su funcionamiento, referentes a la lista de enfermedades de declaración obligatoria, procedimientos y modalidades de declaración. Peréz-Arellano, J. L. et al. (2005) ‘Ciguatera Fish Poisoning , Canary Islands’, Emerging Infectious Diseases, 11(12), pp. 11–12. doi: 10.3201/eid1112.050393. Real Decreto 418/2015, de 29 de mayo, por el que se regula la primera venta de los productos pesqueros. Sanchez-Henao, J. A. et al. (2019) ‘Predictive score and probability of CTX-like toxicity in fish samples from the official control of ciguatera in the Canary Islands’, Science of the Total Environment. Elsevier B.V., 673, pp. 576–584. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.445.

Keywords: Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP), Risk analysis (RA), Professional fishing, Canary Islands - Spain, Web aplication

Conference: XX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies (SIEBM XX) , Braga, Portugal, 9 Sep - 12 Sep, 2019.

Presentation Type: Poster Presentation

Topic: Fisheries, Aquaculture and Biotechnology

Citation: Cabrera-Suárez F, Bilbao-Sieyro A, Perez-González Y, Castro-Rodríguez R, Torres-López C, Sánchez-Herrera R and Pavón-Salas N (2019). A web application as a contribution to the risk analysis of the Ciguatera in the Canary Islands. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: XX Iberian Symposium on Marine Biology Studies (SIEBM XX) . doi: 10.3389/conf.fmars.2019.08.00157

Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.

The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.

Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.

For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.

Received: 14 May 2019; Published Online: 27 Sep 2019.

* Correspondence: Ms. Ninoska Pavón-Salas, Management of the Rural Environment of Canarias SAU, Agüimes, Spain, mariapavon@gmrcanarias.com