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Human fatalities in Vanuatu after eating the xanthid crab, Daira perlata

Created 28/09/2025

Updated 28/09/2025

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This was the first case of the crab species, Daira perlata, being inplicated in toxic poisoning. Autopsies were not carried out on the two teenagers who died in 2000 after consuming a meal containing the crab, Daira perlata. Because it was not possible to test for toxicity at the hospital on Tanna Island, the remains of the crab from the meal were sent to the Australian Institute of Marine Science for testing. As these remains had been preserved in formalin which hinders subsequent toxin analysis, 4 specimens of the crab species were collected from the same location (Lenawha Reef) in the fortnight after the poisonings and analysed for toxins using 2 specific and sensitive binding assays but no toxin was detected. Three toxins are known to occur in crabs, saxitoxin, tetrodotoxin and palytoxin (assays available at the time do not detect palytoxin). To use sodium channel and saxiphilin receptor assays to see if paralytic shellfish toxins could be identified in this species of crab involved in human fatalities. Crabs are known to bioaccumulate toxins from the environment.

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Additional Info

Field Value
Title Human fatalities in Vanuatu after eating the xanthid crab, Daira perlata
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/en/dataset/938a2885-2c17-4705-b27c-8a2fb347edca
Contact Point
Australian Ocean Data Network
adc@aims.gov.au
Reference Period 20/11/2017
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    169.26472,
    -19.535
  ],
  "type": "Point"
}
Data Portal data.gov.au

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on data.gov.au "Human fatalities in Vanuatu after eating the xanthid crab, Daira perlata". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/human-fatalities-in-vanuatu-after-eating-the-xanthid-crab-daira-perlata2