Friday 15 July 2016

Highest Antibiotics in Farmed Fish - Human Problem

Everyone knows that use of antibiotics creates resistant bacteria. So, we want as little as possible in the food chain because we, humans, may pay the price. See: http://www.ecowatch.com/chiles-salmon-industry-using-record-levels-of-antibiotics-to-combat-ba-1891172698.html.

How is Chile doing you ask? Not very well:

"Following a Chile Appeals Court order, the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca) revealed that the country's salmon producers used 557 tonnes of antibiotics in 2015, with consumption rate per tonne of salmon reaching its highest point in the last nine years at 660 grams per tonne. The previous high was 640 grams per tonne in 2007. Usage was as low as 310 grams per tonne in 2010, Undercurrent News noted. The newest figures were compiled from 46 companies that operate in both freshwater and sea water."

SRS, or piscirickettsiosis, causes lesions, hemorrhaging and swollen kidneys and spleens. Do note that there is a difference between bacteria in cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals. Bacteria are adapted to the temperature range of their hosts, and are inactive at other temperatures.

And the unsustainability of feed derived from small pelagic fish that should feed human beings has consistently been pointed out as a problem: "Environmentalists have criticized salmon aquaculture, aka fish farming, as the carnivorous fish are fed animal-derived proteins called “fish meal,” or fish oil made from anchovies, which have been shown to carry Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other toxins that can make their way into the human food supply." We don't need carnivorous fish being raised, only vegetarians.

Going on to related subjects, Justine Hausheer wrote: “Even the best farms still pollute their waters with parasiticides, chemicals and fish feces. The Chilean farmed salmon industry uses over 300,000 kilograms of antibiotics a year, causing bacterial resistances that affect fish, the environment and human beings.”

And SRS vaccines account for almost 90% of antibiotics use.

In the USA:  "The superbug crisis has been linked to 23,000 human deaths and 2 million illnesses annually in the U.S. at a price of $20 billion in direct costs." This is for antibiotics used in livestock, ie, warm-blooded animals.

Studies show antibiotics work their way into waterways, leach into soil, and thus cause resistance even when the chemicals have past through the livestock, an issue in farmed fish as well as on-land livestock.

Chile has been criticized for its 'staggeringly' high use of antibiotics, and it is still reeling from the 2016 algal bloom, partly resulting from fish farm sewage, killing 25 million farmed salmon, meaning  15 percent of the country's salmon production.Norwegian fish farms Marine Harvest and Cermaq operate in Chile. MH has lost 2.5 million salmon.















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