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<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Salmon
farmers warned on antibiotic use<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></headline></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a
href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/salmon-farmers-warned-on-antibiotic-use/2007/06/22/1182019367389.html">http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/salmon-farmers-warned-on-antibiotic-use/2007/06/22/1182019367389.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Andrew Darby in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Hobart</st1:City></st1:place><br>
</byline><date>June 23, 2007<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</date>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><!--bylineDetails--><!--articleDetails--><!--articleExtras-wrap--><bod></bod>THE
use of antibiotics on <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
favourite farmed fish, Atlantic salmon, has risen disturbingly as diseases
flare in their sea pens.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
increase has raised strong private concerns from the Tasmanian Government,
which said it was nearly double the amount expected.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>It was a
threat to human health, the environment, and salmon's clean market image, the
Primary Industries Minister, David Llewellyn, warned in documents obtained by
the <i><span style='font-style:italic'>Herald</span></i>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
antibiotics are appearing in wild fish near farms, and the Government has
called for an end to the use of one drug, amoxicillin, also used on humans. The
$250 million-a-year industry, which produces 22,000 tonnes of the fish, is
insisting on continued access to antibiotic treatments.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>From 12
kilograms a year a decade ago, the antibiotics used at salmon and trout farms
totalled almost eight tonnes in the first three months this year, according to
departmental figures.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
Australian Pesticide and Veterinary Medicines Authority permitted the industry
to use the most common antibiotic, oxytetracycline (OTC) and the proprietary medicine,
Aquaflor after a risk assessment.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"It
is disturbing … that the industry has used nearly double the amount of
OTC than was anticipated in the permit application," Mr Llewellyn said in
a letter to the Tasmanian Salmonid Growers' Association.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The farms
maintain a holding period to allow antibiotics to pass through the fish before
they are harvested, but Mr Llewellyn said there was a potential public health
impact if OTC entered the human food chain through consumption of wild fish
that might have eaten medicated feed outside pens, or treated salmon that
escaped.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Salmon
also regularly escape from sea pens. In the latest incident, 9000 mature fish
swam free of a pen at Strahan last month, triggering an amateur netting spree
over the Queen's Birthday long weekend.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Mr
Llewellyn said a further concern was the use of the human treatment
amoxicillin. He threatened to prohibit its use after the state Director of
Public Health, Roscoe Taylor, told him of concerns about potential allergic
reactions, and the effect on the drug of antibiotic resistant bacteria already
in the sea.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
industry defended the increased use of antibiotics, mostly to treat
"flare-ups" of the infection marine Aeromonas, and salmon rickettsia,
which can swell internal organs and lead to mass deaths.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
executive officer of the Tasmanian Salmonid Growers' Association, Pheroze
Jungalwalla, said that in the long term animal husbandry and vaccinations would
improve, but it was critical to keep access to antibiotics, and the industry
had notified the authority of a predicted increased usage of 10 tonnes a year.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
industry takes part in a national residue survey program run by the Federal
Department of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries. Mr Jungalwalla said:
"These independent, random, surveys have never found salmon that reaches
the consumer to reach or exceed maximum permissible residue limits of
antibiotics."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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