Detection of domoic acid, the amnesic shellfish toxin, in the digestive gland of Eledone cirrhosa and E. moschata (Cephalopoda, Octopoda) from the Portuguese coast

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Domoic acid (DA), the toxin responsible for the illness amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP), is a food web transferred algal toxin produced naturally by some species of the diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia, that has been detected in many marine organisms from copepods to whales. Cephalopods, which are important members of the food chain and active predators of known toxin vectors such as bivalves, crabs and some fishes, have just recently been implicated in DA transfer or accumulation. Here we present data showing relevant values of DA detected by HPLC-UV and also confirmed by HPLCMS in two octopus species collected along the Portuguese continental coast: Eledone cirrhosa and E. moschata. Domoic acid was frequently detected in the digestive gland of E. moschata occasionally reaching concentrations exceeding 100 μg.g-1, which reveals this species as a potential vector for higher predators in the Portuguese coastal marine food web. On the other hand E. cirrhosa showed lower concentrations of DA in the few times that it was detected. These data, combined with known aspects of the life history of the species, are a necessary step towards achieving an understanding of the accumulation of phycotoxins in cephalopods.