Background:

The increasing evidence of risk to the environment and human health by cyanotoxin exposure during cyanobacterial blooms has been reported worldwide. Despite the knowledge of cyanotoxin presence in Latin America, cyanotoxin bioaccumulation from freshwater environments have not been reviewed for the region.

Goals:

To review the current knowledge of cyanotoxin accumulation in tissues of freshwater organisms in field studies in Latin America.

Methods:

An extensive literature search was conducted to construct a database including information on accumulation of cyanotoxins in organisms inhabiting freshwater environments in Latin America (i.e., México to Argentina).

Results:

We found twenty-one studies from 2001 to 2020, including twenty-seven mostly eutrophic water bodies, the majority from Brazil. Microcystis was the most reported genus responsible for cyanotoxin production. Fish comprised most of the species accumulating cyanotoxins (20 species). Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) was the most studied species, and 80% of the fish species included have commercial importance, which highlights a potential route of exposure to humans by consumption of contaminated food. Some studies showed the reduction of cyanotoxins in tissues after an experimental depuration time. Also, calculations of the potential human intakes of microcystins by fish consumption exceeded the recommendations of tolerable intakes in most of the cases.

Conclusions:

In Latin America, the geographic extent of studies is narrow, however the summarized information indicates a risk for environment and human health by cyanotoxins bioaccumulation. There is a need for more efforts to generate scientific research on cyanotoxins bioaccumulation, but also for improvement of local level management policies to reduce eutrophication.