CYANOBACTERIAL TOXINS

Cyanobacterial toxins and their effects on environmental health

Cyanobacterial toxins and their effects on environmental health

Introduction

Cyanobacteria (also called blue-green algae) is a photosynthetic bacteria or Hormogoneae Coccogoneae class, usually bluish green in color. Some species of Cyanobacteria are capable of fixing nitrogen. Its name comes from the Greek prefix "cyanos" meaning blue, referring to olive green or slightly bluish with because of their photosynthetic pigments. That is why they are called blue-green algae, which are very similar to microscopic bacteria. More or less quiet often, the mold or moss growing on damp walls or wood, or verdigris seen floating in water bodies are the cyanobacteria. Some species of cyanobacteria produce toxins that affect animals and humans. The diseases caused by toxins, depends on the type of toxin and the exposure to water. Humans are affected by a range of symptoms including skin irritation, stomach pain, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, fever, sore throat, headache, muscle and joint pain, sores in the mouth and stomach damage. Toxins of cyanobacteria in lakes, ponds etc. in various parts of the world are recognized for causing poisoning in animals and humans. They have been associated with different diseases in various regions of the world, including North and South America, Africa, Australia, Europe, Scandinavia and China. There are no reliable data on the number of people affected worldwide (Vasconcelos, 2001). This paper discusses the Cyanobacterial toxins and their effects on environmental health in a holistic context.

Discussion

Cyanobacteria are tiny microorganisms that were formerly known as blue-green algae. In many species the cyanobacteria toxic effect forms were detected. In recent years, many chemical structures and modes of cyanobacteria have been detected. They are a secondary metabolite. The toxins have a mass extinction of animals. These animals often die miserably, after drinking from the contaminated water. The symptoms that may occur after the water intake are: Reaction and unconsciousness, due to which the animals collapse and remain calm, as if asleep, unless they are touched as a result of which they cramps, retire with head and neck in rigid spasm, and decline before death. These extinction patterns have been widely observed in sheep from one to six or eight hours, with horses from eight to twenty-four hours, with four to five hours in dogs, and for pigs three or four hours. The quantity level that is deadly depends on several factors: First, the nature and amount of the toxin in the cells and their concentration in the water and on the other the size, species, age and sex of the animal, to what it takes. It was reported that from an alga, which is supposed to have such cyanobacterial toxins: Thick foam like green oil paint, between two and six inches thick and chewy and doughy like porridge (Bláha, Babica & Maršálek, 2009).

Compared with the growth of the world population and the consequent increase in the production of organic waste, sewage and agricultural, together with the use of non-biodegradable detergents and phosphorus in the absence of forms of wastewater treatment in ...