Concentration ciguatoxins in fillet of fish: A global systematic review and meta-analysis

In the current study, an attempt was made to meta-analyze and discuss the concentration of ciguatoxins (CTXs) in fillets of fish based on country and water resources subgroups. The search was conducted in Scopus and PubMed, Embase and Web of Science to retrieve papers about the concentration of CTXs in fillet fish until July 2022. Meta-analysis concentration of CTXs was conducted based on countries and water resources subgroups in the random effects model (REM). The sort of countries based on the pooled concentration of CTXs was Kiribati (3.904 μg/kg) > Vietnam (1.880 μg/kg) > Macaronesia (1.400 μg/kg) > French (1.261 μg/kg) > China (0.674 μg/kg) > Japan (0.572 μg/kg) > USA (0.463 μg/kg) > Spain (0.224 μg/kg) > UK (0.170 μg/kg) > Fiji (0.162 μg/kg) > Mexico (0.150 μg/kg) > Australia (0.138 μg/kg) > Portugal (0.011 μg/kg). CTXs concentrations in all countries are higher than the safe limits of CTX1C (0.1 μg/kg). However, based on the safe limits of CTX1P, the concentrations of CTXs in just Portugal meet the regulation level (0.01 μg/kg). The minimum and maximum concentrations of CTXs were as observed in Selvagens Islands (0.011 μg/kg) and St Barthelemy (7.875 μg/kg) respectively. CTXs concentrations in all water resources are higher than safe limits of CTX1C (0.1 μg/kg) and CTX1B (0.01 μg/kg). Therefore, it is recommended to carry out continuous control pans of CTXs concentration in fish in different countries and water sources.