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blowfish testicles sicken 7


Simon Bar Sinister

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Blowfish=Fugu, a Japanese delicacy.

The fish has a neurotoxin (called tetrodotoxin,) that is lethal and has a relatively low LD50 (Lethal Dose 50, the amount of toxin it takes to kill 50% of the subjects eating it.) (It only takes 25 MILLIGRAMS for the average person to die from it.) While the meat has small amounts in it (it causes a tingling sensation in the lips when present,) it is mostly concentrated in the gonads (testes and ovaries.)

There is an antidote, but the stuff works so fast you are dead before they can administer it.

In Japan, and please people more in the know correct me, to prepare the fish in a manner that is safe to eat requires years of training, and you have to be licensed by the government. There are stories of people wanting a sliver of the gonads for the flavor and sensation, and have paid the price.

That being said, I wouldn't mind trying it. However, if a percocet can knock me out for 18 hours, the amount of tetrodotoxin in the flesh would probably gak me.

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Ooops!

Happens fairly often there. But I thought it was the liver that was the toxic part... do fish even have testicles?

Yes. Unlike mammals, their testes stay above the kidney where they start developing in all vertebrates.

I believe you are right on the liver as well. It's both organs.

(This is what I get for having a degree in vertebrate zoology.)

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