Claim: Blue-green algae (known scientifically as cyanobacteria) are capable of poisoning dogs and other pets. 
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: Environmental toxicology
text: or blue-green algae, are photosynthetic bacteria. They grow in many types of water. Their rapid growth ("bloom") is related to high water temperature as well as eutrophication (resulting from enrichment with minerals and nutrients often due to runoff from the land that induces excessive growth of these algae). Many genera of cyanobacteria produce several toxins. Cyanotoxins can be dermatotoxic, neurotoxic, and hepatotoxic, though death related to their exposure is rare. Cyanotoxins and their non-toxic components can cause allergic reactions, but this is poorly understood. Despite their known toxicities, developing a specific biomarker of exposure has been difficult because of the

title: Harmful algal bloom
text: such as microcystins. Although blue-green or other algae do not usually pose a direct threat to health, the toxins (poisons) which they produce are considered dangerous to humans, land animals, sea mammals, birds and fish when the toxins are ingested. The toxins are neurotoxins which destroy nerve tissue which can affect the nervous system, brain, and liver, and can lead to death. Tests have shown some toxins near blooms can be in the air and thereby be inhaled, which could affect health. There is no treatment available for animals, including livestock cattle, if they drink from algal blooms where such

title: Cyanotoxin
text: Cyanotoxin Cyanotoxins are toxins produced by bacteria called cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae). Cyanobacteria are found almost everywhere, but particularly in lakes and in the ocean where, under high concentration of phosphorus conditions, they reproduce exponentially to form blooms. Blooming cyanobacteria can produce cyanotoxins in such concentrations that they poison and even kill animals and humans. Cyanotoxins can also accumulate in other animals such as fish and shellfish, and cause poisonings such as shellfish poisoning. Among cyanotoxins are some of the most powerful natural poisons known, including poisons which can cause rapid death by respiratory failure. The toxins include

title: Florida Bay
text: the bay bottom leads to anoxia and in turn, algal blooms. Blue-green algae causes numerous severe health consequences for the marine ecosystem as well surrounding human populations. Blooms result in reduced dissolved oxygen concentrations, alterations in aquatic food webs, algal scum lining the shores, the production of compounds that cause distasteful drinking water and fish flesh, and the production of toxins severe enough to poison aquatic as well as terrestrial organisms. Blooms have been reported throughout the continental United States, and resulting cyanotoxins have been associated with human and animal illness and death in at least 43 states. Most cyanobacteria

title: Cyanotoxin
text: potent neurotoxins, hepatotoxins, cytotoxins, and endotoxins. Despite the similarity in name, they are not cyanides. Recreational exposure to cyanobacteria can result in gastro-intestinal and hay fever symptoms or pruritic skin rashes. Exposure to the cyanobacteria neurotoxin BMAA may be an environmental cause of neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS, Parkinson's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease. There is also an interest in the military potential of biological neurotoxins such as cyanotoxins, which "have gained increasing significance as potential candidates for weaponization." The first published report that blue-green algae or cyanobacteria could have lethal effects appeared in "Nature" in 1878. George Francis described the

title: St. Lucie River
text: the river experienced the flourishing of extensive algae blooms, along with Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River. The cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, causes numerous severe health consequences for the marine ecosystem as well surrounding human populations. Blooms result in reduced dissolved oxygen concentrations, alterations in aquatic food webs, algal scum lining the shores, the production of compounds that cause distasteful drinking water and fish flesh, and the production of toxins severe enough to poison aquatic as well as terrestrial organisms. Blooms have been reported throughout the continental United States, and resulting cyanotoxins have been associated with human and animal illness

title: Gillian McKeith
text: your blood" is erroneous as sunlight usually is absent inside the human bowel. McKeith's advice in her book "Miracle Superfood: Wild Blue-Green Algae" is also disputed. Jan Krokowski of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency wrote a letter to "New Scientist", as a private individual, saying "blue-green algae—properly called cyanobacteria—are able to produce a range of very powerful toxins, which pose health hazards to humans and animals and can result in illness and death." In response to the criticism, McKeith argues: "I am on a crusade to change the nation and fortunately, or unfortunately, that is going to put me in

title: Harmful algal bloom
text: fish and other organisms. Harmful algal blooms in freshwater lakes and rivers, or at estuaries, where rivers flow into the ocean, are caused by cyanobacteria, also known as "blue-green algae". They can produce hazardous toxins, such as microcystins, a neurotoxin which destroys nerve tissue of mammals. In high enough concentrations, water treatment plants may be unable to remove the toxin and will advise residents to avoid drinking tap water, as happened in Toledo, Ohio in August 2014. They also cause harm by blocking the sunlight or by using up the oxygen needed by fish or plant life, which can lead

title: Cyanotoxin
text: species of other algae taxa can also cause HABs (diatoms, flagellates, haptophytes and raphidophytes). Marine dinoflagellate species are often toxic, but freshwater species are not known to be toxic. Neither are diatoms known to be toxic, at least to humans. In freshwater ecosystems, algal blooms are most commonly caused by high levels of nutrients (eutrophication). The blooms can look like foam, scum or mats or like paint floating on the surface of the water, but they are not always visible. Nor are the blooms always green; they can be blue, and some cyanobacteria species are coloured brownish-red. The water can

title: Cyanotoxin
text: their energy through photosynthesis. The prefix "cyan" comes from the Greek κύανoς meaning "a dark blue substance", and usually indicates any of a number of colours in the blue/green range of the spectrum. Cyanobacteria are commonly referred to as "blue-green algae". Traditionally they were thought of as a form of algae, and were introduced as such in older textbooks. However modern sources tend to regard this as outdated; they are now considered to be more closely related to bacteria, and the term for true "algae" is restricted to eukaryotic organisms. Like true algae, cyanobacteria are photosynthetic and contain photosynthetic pigments,

title: Algaculture
text: blue-green algae) such as "Anabaena". The most well-known of these odor-causing chemicals are MIB (2-methylisoborneol) and geosmin. They give a musty or earthy odor that can be quite strong. Eventual death of the cyanobacteria releases additional gas that is trapped in the cells. These chemicals are detectable at very low levels, in the parts per billion range, and are responsible for many "taste and odor" issues in drinking water treatment and distribution. Cyanobacteria can also produce chemical toxins that have been a problem in drinking water. Nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) serve as fertilizer for

title: Cyanotoxin
text: cyanobacteria can irritate the skin, while other researchers doubt the toxic effects are that generalized. The non-proteinogenic amino acid beta-Methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) is ubiquitously produced by cyanobacteria in marine, freshwater, brackish, and terrestrial environments. The exact mechanisms of BMAA toxicity on neuron cells is being investigated. Research suggests both acute and chronic mechanisms of toxicity. BMAA is being investigated as a potential environmental risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Other cyanotoxins: Cyanotoxin Cyanotoxins are toxins produced by bacteria called cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae). Cyanobacteria are found almost everywhere, but particularly in lakes and

title: Lake Erie
text: toxic blue-green algae that the zebra mussels which infest the lake don't eat. There periodically is a "dead zone", or region of low oxygen, in the lake whose exact location varies. Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been studying the lake's blue-green algae blooms, and trying to find ways to predict when they are spreading or where they might hit landfall; typically the blooms arrive late each summer. This problem was extreme in the mid and late 1960s and the Lake Erie Wastewater Management Study (LEWMS) conducted by the Buffalo District of the US Army Corps of

title: Cyanotoxin
text: which is why they are usually green or blue. Cyanobacteria are found almost everywhere; in oceans, lakes and rivers as well as on land. They flourish in Arctic and Antarctic lakes, hotsprings and wastewater treatment plants. They even inhabit the fur of polar bears, to which they impart a greenish tinge. Cyanobacteria produce potent toxins, but they also produce helpful bioactive compounds, including substances with antitumour, antiviral, anticancer, antibiotic and antifungal activity, UV protectants and specific inhibitors of enzymes. Cyanotoxins are often implicated in what are commonly called "red tides" or "harmful algal blooms". Lakes and oceans contain many single-celled

title: Cyanotoxin
text: algal bloom he observed in the estuary of the Murray River in Australia, as "a thick scum like green oil paint, some two to six inches thick." Wildlife which drank the water died rapidly and terribly. Most reported incidents of poisoning by microalgal toxins have occurred in freshwater environments, and they are becoming more common and widespread. For example, thousands of ducks and geese died drinking contaminated water in the midwestern United States. In 2010, for the first time, marine mammals were reported to have died from ingesting cyanotoxins. Cyanotoxins are produced by cyanobacteria, a phylum of bacteria that obtain

title: Cylindrospermopsin
text: natans", "Raphidiopsis curvata". and "Aphanizomenon issatschenkoi". In Australia, three main toxic cyanobacteria exist: "Anabaena circinalis", "Microcystis" species and "C. raciborskii". Of these the latter, which produces CYN, has attracted considerable attention, not only due to the Palm Island outbreak, but also as the species is spreading to more temperate areas. Previously, the algae was classed as only tropical, however it has recently been discovered in temperate regions of Australia, Europe, North and South America, and also New Zealand. In August 1997, three cows and ten calves died from cylindrospermopsin poisoning on a farm in northwest Queensland. A nearby dam containing

title: Effects of global warming on human health
text: of blue-green algae create neurotoxins, hepatoxins, cytotoxins or endotoxins that can cause serious and sometimes fatal neurological, liver and digestive diseases in humans. Cyanobacteria grow best in warmer temperatures (especially above 25 degrees Celsius), and so areas of the world that are experiencing general warming as a result of climate change are also experiencing harmful algal blooms more frequently and for longer periods of time. During times of intense precipitation (such as during the “wet season” in much of the tropical and sub-tropical world, including Australia and Panama), nutrients that cyanobacteria depend on are carried from groundwater and the earth's

title: Upper Rideau Lake
text: would dump untreated sewage twice annually into the lake. Most recently, in August 2014, toxins were confirmed present in blue-green algae blooms. Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit issued a public health notice warning not to drink the lake water, or allow pets or livestock to do so. This outbreak can be attributed to the sewage dump, erosion, high spring runoff, and zebra mussel population among other causes. Blue-green algae blooms, although not always toxic, is a repeated issue for residents and visitors of Upper Rideau Lake. Plans for the management, protection, and sustainability of the Rideau Canal, including

title: Bacterioplankton
text: microbial food web. Bacterioplankton such as cyanobacteria are able to have toxic blooms in eutrophic lakes which can lead to the death of many organisms such as fish, birds, cattle, pets and humans. A few examples of these harmful blooms is the "Microcystis" bloom in the year 2000 in Swan River estuary, Australia, and the Oostvaarderplassen in the Netherlands in 2003. The detrimental effects of these blooms can range from heart malformation in fish to constraining copepod reproduction. High temperatures caused by seasonality increases stratification and preventing vertical turbulent mixing which increases competition for light that favours buoyant cyanobacteria. Higher

title: Aphanizomenon flos-aquae
text: toxic chemicals released when cells die. Once released (lysed), and ingested, these toxins can damage liver and nerve tissues in mammals. In areas where water quality is not closely monitored, the World Health Organization has assessed toxic algae as a health risk, citing the production of anatoxin-a, saxitoxins, and cylindrospermopsin. Dogs have been reported to have become ill or have fatal reactions after swimming in rivers and lakes containing toxic "A. flos-aquae". Microcystin toxin has been found in all 16 samples of "A. flos-aquae" products sold as food supplements in Germany and Switzerland, originating from Lake Klamath: 10 of 16