Seafood | World Antibiotic Awareness Week |Day #3
Seafood
On Day 3 of World Antibiotic Awareness Week we are looking at the seafood industry and their use for antibiotics. Several different types of veterinary drugs are used within seafood cultivation to reduce mortality and improve production.
Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing agricultural industries in the world, with an 8.4% increase in production year on year which dates back to 1970. Over half of the worlds fish are being produced by this type of farming and with this comes issues. Due to increasing pressures to create greater quantities of products for the industry it is now becoming more common for antibiotics to be used as more diseases infect the waters in which the fish are grown.
Hygienic shortcomings in fish raising methods like aquaculture have caused problems. This is caused by increased fish population, crowding of farming sites, shortage of sanitary barriers and the lack of ability to isolate infected animals.
Due to these shortcomings, antibiotics are being used to treat animals which may not experience illness or are already treated. The treatment of these fish is done through methods including bathing, injection and oral treatments.
In order to protect human health, regulatory authorities including those at the EU have established restrictions and blanket bans of antibiotics in the aquaculture industry. Maximum Residue Limits (MRL) have been established for antibiotic residues in fish, this is created to help stop products from entering the food chain. Proliferation of antibiotic resistant bacteria is fueled by the over usage of antibiotics in settings such as aquaculture.
In addition, the regularly used pond disinfectant malachite green is not banned globally, despite not being registered for use in food producing animals in the European Union (EU) and United States. These antibiotic residues may pass through to the fish tissue that is destined for the food chain.
Some of the most widely used antibiotics within aquaculture include: Chloramphenicol, Fluoroquinolones, Nitrofurans and Quinolones.
To combat the influx of issues with aquaculture and the use of antibiotics, Randox Food have developed an array of screening solutions for the detection of antibiotics in seafood. The Evidence Investigator is a semi-automated, bench top analyser which uses the patented Biochip Array Technology to provide the worlds most reliable, repeatable and economical testing method. Capable of monitoring up to 45 residues from a single sample including chloramphenicol, quinolones and many more.
Links
Randox Food have also created a comprehensive array of ELISA kits available for the detection of antibiotics in tissue.
For more information on our seafood screening methods such please visit: https://www.randoxfood.com/meat-and-seafood-analysis/ or alternatively contact us via email: info@randoxfooddiagnostics.com
For more information on World Antibiotic Awareness Week 2019 please visit: https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2019/11/18/default-calendar/world-antibiotic-awareness-week-2019