Two people in the southeastern province of Trat have been confirmed dead while five others were hospitalized after eating lethally poisonous mangrove horseshoe crabs.
Health officials in Trat repeated warnings this morning for people to be careful before consuming horseshoe crabs, which are a staple. The mangrove variety is poisonous, however, and is blamed for the deaths of two residents in the seaside province located next to the gulf.
There have been cases of people occasionally misidentifying mangrove horseshoe crabs, aka the round-tail horseshoe crab, which contains a toxin, for the Indo-pacific horseshoe crab, which jas a tail covered by a sturdy carapace. The latter species is not poisonous and safe to eat.
Trat health officials this morning published infographics warning people to make sure they carefully detect and differentiate the two species of horseshoe crabs before eating the non-harmful one. They are easily identified by their tails.
The residents are also advised to eat horseshoe crabs from standardized restaurants only.
In 2020, a 46-year-old woman in Phuket died after catching horseshoe crabs and cooking them at home. After eating them, she vomited, became unable to walk, and fell unconscious. She later died at a hospital.
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