An outbreak of poisoning from Penicillium cyclopium contaminated dried persimmon

It is the first report of an outbreak of 114 food-poisoning cases due to consumption of Penicillium cyclopium contaminated dried persimmon. Gastralgia, diarrhea, dizziness and general malaise are chief symptoms of the poisoning, with incubation period of 2-6 hrs generally and a short disease period (generally recovered within 2-3 days). No enteropathogenic organism, pathogenic coccus and Campylobacter jejuni were detected. Surface fungi counts were 49,000/g, 21.3 times of that discovered in the marketed dried persimmon. Penicillium cyclopium Westling was the dominant fungus isolated. Mouse toxicity tests were carried out with the crude extracts of the fungus culture. Diarrhea, tremor and convulsion were observed before death. During autopsy, necrosis and hemorrhagic foci were observed in G.I. tract after intra-peritoneal injection and intubation. In histo-pathological examination, different degree of necrosis and scaling of gastro-intestinal mucous membrane, lymphocyte infiltration, and necrosis of liver cells and renal tubule epithelial cells could be seen.