fne8w2ah9 dead, 78 others hospitalized after eating sea turtle meat on Zanzibar’s Pemba Island
Cowabunga! That’s one sick turtle 😎
ivanafterallTurtle Power!
Had to look up why sea turtle meat would kill, since it’s not reported in the article.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelonitoxism
Huh, fascinating stuff. Wonder what triggers it
BOMBScyanobacteria infection of the turtle. it can also happen if they dont parboil the turtle meat correctly. that’s the best i could find using an Internet search
Wikipedia notes that the likely cause is a neurotoxin. Apparently it’s an area of little research, though.
Sea turtle meat is considered a delicacy by Zanzibar’s people even though it periodically results in deaths from chelonitoxism, a type of food poisoning.
Second paragraph.
Typical NBC not embedding an entire wikipedia page in their article. smh my head.
It’s incredible, I’ve never seen a disease with so little information on the actual mechanism behind it. The articles just lists where it happens and every symptom you can think of. The word Chelonitoxin itself just refers to the scientific name of these turtles Chelonia followed by toxin.
I dug a little deeper and found this:
Salmonella sp., Proteus sp., Aeromonas, Escherichia coli, Citrobacter sp., Enterobacter sp., Klebsiella sp., Morganella morganii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella sp. and Shigella sp. are some of the pathogenic microorganisms found in this study. Some of these microorganisms are common bacterial flora of nesting green turtles (Santoro et al., 2006).
So it looks like the gut biome of the turtles is capable of killing humans. My first guess was going to be the diet of the turtles.
AkasazhThe ‘why’ is lacking in the wiki article too, unfortunately.
Kill from the Grave
I wonder if this is a case of the illness being lethal or the hospitals being bad.
it is lethal, yet people keep eating them
If only there was an article you could read about this incident that would answer your question…
I did read the article. In the west with modern healthcare we routinely survive things that would have killed someone with worse healthcare. The article doesn’t discuss that. It just states that people died and what illness killed them.
EdibleFriendyo that turtles was nasty as fuck
This is tragic.
While the Wikipedia page lists the food poisoning as rare, it still feels like a Russian Roulette kind of meal.
Would you eat something knowing that there is a nonzero chance it might kill you (as in really off you, not just give you a bad night at the bathroom)?
I suppose the answer is a lot of people would, since the article itself mentioned another recent poisoning.
It reminds me of the blowfish which is also lethally poisonous if not handled by someone who’s certified to do so.
I suppose everything in life has a risk and I’ve done my share of reckless things, but rolling the dice on food never appealed to me.
Yea a while ago 20 people died at a wedding in Mada after being served Turtle. Hawksbill or Green, not sure. I should find the news article but I’m too lazy and it’s late. Hawksbill is supposed to never be edible. Over here in Mayotte there are still poachers
I think we’re just kind of bad at evaluating risks of a relatively low order. In the US. E coli kills some 3000 people a year, and most of have exposure to that risk. I think it might just be that people don’t see much of a difference between chances in the range of, say, 0.1% and 0.00001% of serious illness.
I wound eat something that could kill me, but I def will ingest something like that. But hey that’s just me.
if not handled by someone who’s certified to do so.
Just wanna say, you can be uncertified and handle it properly and certified while handling it improperly.
DataproletThe saddest is that it’s children who probably had no clue and no way of deciding.
It’s painfully obvious that some cultures just haven’t learned this lessons yet.
Yeah, don’t . . . . don’t eat sea turtles, okay.
Everybody? Like if you were sitting around rubbing your belly and licking your lips going “Mmmm mmmm wish I had a big sea turtle meat dish right now”, like - don’t. Okay?
Just leave the sea turtles alone. They got enough hassles.
inb4_FoundTheVeganAgreed! Leave the turtles alone!
And the cows. And the pigs. And the chickens. They all have enough problems.
Found the compassionate individual.
Their username is a clue.
silly goose meekahThe comment you’re replying to is already a reference to the username
Everyone who downvoted this should know that pigs are raised in pens where they don’t have enough room to turn around and have to sleep and give birth in their own shit.
But hey, the narwhal bacons at midnight, right?
The juvenile preoccupation with shaming vegans online is so fucking exhausting and annoying. You’d think the existence of vegans and the idea of eating less meat to reduce overall cruelty was like asking them to sell their child into slavery.
People would rather do anything than admit their contribution to the problem.
I see it all the time.
I raise my own pigs in large pens and they are treated well until slaughter.
What are your feelings on that?
That you are slaughtering them. So you aren’t testing them well at all.
I do a rudimentary arithmetic and geometry test before slaughter.
They’re not going to live forever in nature and I give them a very good life.
Plus all the great meats come from pig.
Bacon, ham, and all the other great porky bits.
They’re not going to live forever in nature and I give them a very good life.
Again. Does not absolve murder. Literally no one will live forever, but that’s not a reason why you can kill your neighbors.
Plus all the great meats come from pig.
Harming a creature for your own personal pleasure is the logic of dog fighting. You don’t need to watch that as entertainment just as you don’t need to kill for the enjoyment of food.
I feel like you using very selfish reasoning. Does assault, rape or murder become moral if I enjoy it enough?
Meat is great and I enjoy it.
I do not enjoy taking to you so good bye.
Fair enough, but I made my stance clear from the start and you literally asked for my opinion on your situation specifically so I’m not gonna hound you or anything.
I just think you have cognitive dissonance around a cultural norm, but lots of people do for lots of different topics so that doesn’t make you a bad person.
Have a good night.
Everyone who downvoted this should know that pigs are raised in pens where they don’t have enough room to turn around and have to sleep and give birth in their own shit.
But none of that is the reason you have a problem with raising pigs because if they are treated well you still have a problem with the raising and slaughter of animals for food so no you did not make your stance clear.
I asked your opinion and I got a lecture that I didn’t ask for.
I’m gonna lock you in my basement and give you lots of tasty food and nice magazines before I butcher and eat you. Yum!
𝕱𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖈𝖍And the humans
Ok, so there’s a risk of death. If I’m on a desert island then I’ll risk it, otherwise I’ll avoid.
A lesson to a bunch of dumb tourists.
ryvenHow did you learn they were tourists? Is there a better article?
Eight children and an adult died
Eight children and an adult died
It’s a traditional island thing, what are you talking about?
WahotsHoly fuck, the Wikipedia article for Chelonitoxism is crazy. No wonder everyone is dead or fucked up.
Children are especially susceptible, and the toxins have been reported to transfer readily via breastfeeding, even when the mother experiences no illness.
Motherfucking toxin from the Alien movies
Digestive system signs include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, dysphagia, tongue abnormalities and a firm, nontender liver. Autopsies have revealed hemorrhage in liver, esophagus and stomach, with mucosal edema of the esophagus, stomach and intestines. Fatty changes and necrosis of the liver were present. Other organs found to be abnormal on autopsy include swollen gall bladder, congested kidneys and enlarged spleen.
Goddamn. I have a feeling some of them aren’t done dying yet.
Yeah let’s eat this animal that consumes jellyfish like they’re tictacs…
Do… you have a Tic-Tac problem?
It’s not a 'problem ’ and I can totally stop anytime!
I just decided not to stop right now.
I like the way the turtle in the thumbnail looks like “Yeah you fucking deserved that”
its just a turtle bro
ripcordI don’t wish anyone dead, really. But good, in a way. Leave the fucking turtles alone, we already make it hard enough for them. There’s zero reason to kill and eat a bunch.
JohnEdwaThere are three species of sea turtles that can cause this type of a death (chelonitoxism) - two of them are Vulnerable, one of them is Endangered.
SoleInvictus🎶 Toxic ocean threatened turtles, toxic ocean threatened turtles, toxic mutant threatened turtles. Revenge in a half shell, turtle chowder!🎶
BlackmistWhenever something is described as a delicacy I see a bunch of rich cunts eating something that doesn’t even taste good, but it’s expensive so they must have it while looking down their noses at people eating a delicious fry up.