Strengthening Ciguatera Surveillance in Lifou with the CIGUAWATCH Initiative

Field mission · October 2025

Strengthening ciguatera surveillance in Lifou with the CIGUAWATCH initiative

Illustration: Awareness seminar for healthcare staff.

To improve surveillance, the Marine Biotoxins Laboratory (ILM) travelled to New Caledonia in late September to continue deploying the CIGUAWATCH platform, which enables real-time monitoring of ciguatera cases. This mission is part of the MaHeWa project, dedicated to studying marine heatwaves in the Pacific.

Figure 1 — Ciguatera cases reported to DASS between 1984 and 2018.

In collaboration with IFREMER, several actions were undertaken, including training healthcare personnel, raising awareness among medical staff about case reporting, and holding public information sessions. Discussions are underway to expand CIGUAWATCH across New Caledonia, with Lifou as a pilot site, and to promote the initiative in English-speaking Pacific countries through the Pacific Community (SPC).

Figure 2 — Clinical descriptions of ciguatera cases recorded in Lifou.