VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - The number of people sick from a bad batch of mussels from Salt Spring Island is now up to 50. The
Canadian Food Inspection Agency put out an warning on Sunday about mussels harvested by Salt Spring Island based "Island Sea Farms" between July 19th and August 2nd.
Doctor Eleni Galanis with the
BC Centre for Disease Control says they may be contaminated with Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning biotoxin or DSP.
"Unfortunately, it's not a toxin that can be denatured or killed by cooking so even though the mussels have been well cooked, people can still become ill."
Symptoms include: diarrhea, nausea, stomach cramps, and vomiting.
Galanis adds this is the first time DSP has been encountered in BC but she explains if you become sick, you won't need to see a doctor.
"What we know about it is that it causes these gastrointestinal or stomach flu like symptoms that happen within a couple of hours of eating the tainted mussels but they go away on their own within one to three days at the most," says Galanis.