What is already known about this topic?
Mushroom poisoning is becoming one of the most serious food safety issues in China, which is responsible for nearly a half of all oral poisoning deaths.
What is added by this report?
In China, many mushrooms were previously “recorded” as poisonous. In this study, about 70 species obtained from mushroom poisoning incidents including several new records were confirmed accurately by morphological and molecular evidence in 2019, and spatial and temporal distribution characters of 13 lethal mushrooms were summarized systematically.
What are the implications for public health practice?
Precise and timely species identification is of pivotal importance in mushroom incidents. More efforts and cooperation are continued to be needed urgently for the governments, CDC staff, doctors and mycologists in future.
Summary
What is already known about this topic?
Acute liver failure, rhabdomyolysis, acute renal failure, and hemolysis caused by poisonous mushrooms are the most important mushroom poisoning threats to the Chinese population. The most notorious lethal mushrooms are the species from genera
Amanita
,
Lepiota
, and
Galerina
that cause acute liver failure, and
Russula subnigricans
that leads to rhabdomyolysis.
What is added by this report?
In 2020, the total number of investigations reached 676, involving an estimated 102 species of poisonous mushrooms, 24 of which were newly recorded in China.
Gyromitra venenata
was newly discovered in incidents in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces and were the first reported poisonings due to gyromitrins in China since 2000. The rare poisoning Shiitake mushroom dermatitis was recorded in China. Hemolysis poisoning caused by
Paxillus involutus
was recorded for the second time since the beginning of the new century, resulting in one death in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
What are the implications for public health practice?
Promoting knowledge about safe consumption of mushrooms is essential to reduce mushroom poisonings. It is not wise to collect and eat wild mushrooms. For southwestern provinces such as Yunnan, especially, caution must be exercised with unfamiliar mushroom species.
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