Apr
15
Mussel platforms. (Photo: StockFile)
Galician government defends biotoxin control in mussels
SPAIN
Monday, April 15, 2013, 23:30 (GMT + 9)
The findings of mussels in France with the alleged presence of toxins has forced Xunta de Galicia to request cautiousness given the sanitary alert and to defend the smooth operation and the fast biotoxin control system.
The Galician Government stresses that the available information at present is scarce and not proved. And it adds it is expecting to receive all the relevant information to verify the origin of the mussels that are supposedly contaminated with red tide.
According to the director of the Technological Institute for the Control of the Marine Environment of Galicia (Intecmar), Covadonga Salgado, it is not an exceptional situation, but a perfectly controlled event.
Galicia experiments cases of red tide every year, highlighted the regional government in a press release.
Salgado said the secretariats of the Rural and Marine Environment, and of Sanitary Issues are expecting to receive the data to verify the origin of the mussel.
Meanwhile, Intecmar is conducting daily checks and clarified that the only river that has open mussel areas is that of Ares-Betanzos.
Based on the rigorous controls and the available data, the authority ensured that the resources of the area can be taken to the market with all the hygiene-sanitary guarantees.
In this regard, the entity stressed that the institute works with control methods that are accredited by the National Accreditation Agency and Galicia has a leading control system that is working well, Salgado insisted.
Intecmar is in charge of controlling the 52 mussel polygons existing in Galician waters and performs sampling at 52 primary fixed spots and 128 secondary fixed spots between once a week and once a day, depending on the levels of toxic phytoplankton presence.
Furthermore, it conducts water monitoring and analyzes the physico-chemical variables, such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen and salinity, to investigate the correlation between these variables and biotoxin events.
With all the data collected, it updates a report on the situation in the studied areas twice a day.
All this information is public and it is uploaded on Intecmar website in real time.
In early April, the Secretariat of Rural Environment ordered a mussel ban due to the presence of red tide in local waters. Forty-two mussel platform polygons (80 per cent of the total n umber) were closed due to high lipophilic bacteria toxicity levels found by Intecmar experts.
The scientists detected toxicity levels that were above those set for the capture and affecting bivalve molluscs that are farmed in floating nurseries, ABC reported.
Related article:
– Galicia closes 80pc of the mussel platforms due to red tide
By Analia Murias
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com
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