Red tide toxins......

[Agu]

Karina Brevis aka Red Tide is moving up the Gulf coast. Since I feed coquina clams to my mantis and pistol shrimp I decided to collect some before it hit my area. Now I'm having second thoughts.

Obviously freezing the clams will kill the algae, but will it neutralize the toxins associated with Red Tide ?



Red Tide

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

I've asked a similar question about Brevetoxin before. Toxins are sometimes deactivated by heat, but I've never heard of it being deactivated by cold. I'm not an expert in the field though.

http://www.iscid.org/encyclopedia/Brevetoxin

I can't find the link that I wanted to give you though Also, be careful of Saxitoxins as well.

 

[billsreef]

I don't think freezing the clams will neutralize the toxin.

 

[poedag]

i'm fairly sure the only way to neutralize brevetoxin is chemically, and that is VERY expensive

 

[Travis L. Stevens]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7901596#post7901596 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by poedag
i'm fairly sure the only way to neutralize brevetoxin is chemically, and that is VERY expensive

Is it actually expensive. Or is it expensive because hospitals charge an arm and a leg?

 

[poedag]

haha, good point... they do charge waaaayyyyy to much, but i believe that the brevetoxin itself is fairly difficult to manufacture and as a result the anti-toxin is expensive as well.