BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish

Subject: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Ed T
Date: 23 Oct 14 - 05:48 AM

""A research project on the use of antibiotics in aquaculture examined the presence of antibiotics in shrimp, salmon, catfish, trout, tilapia and swai, originating out of 11 countries.The research evaluated 47 different antibiotics, and detected the presence of five antibiotics in their study. The findings were published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials online October 5, 2014.""



New study  

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Ed T
Date: 23 Oct 14 - 05:52 AM

Journal of Hazardous Materials article 

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: GUEST,JJ, on safari
Date: 23 Oct 14 - 08:01 AM

I'm currently visiting USA and was horrified to find the enormous range of antibiotic creams / ointments available off the shelf in places like CVS.
I found it extremely difficult to buy an ordinary antiseptic.
This ready availability of antibiotics without a prescription doesn't bode well for the future of mankind at a time when doctors (certainly in UK) are trying to limit their unnecessary use.
JJ

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 23 Oct 14 - 09:48 AM

this is a pervasive problem throughout the USA, especially because of the reliance on large municipal sanitary treatment plants that discharge to fresh and salt water bodies. Discharges that include various medicines, birth control drugs, antibiotics and other chemicals that can not be removed during treatment.

Two truisms that I learned forty some years ago... There's no such thing as a free lunch... and ... Todays problems are the result of yesterday's solutions.

Fifty years ago it was unusual to know someone with asthma or food allergies... what has changed in our environment since then? OK, what hasn't changed is the better question, I guess.

We are reaping what we sowed...

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Oct 14 - 10:28 AM

The ointments - antibiotic and antifungal aren't that wide spectrum, I don't think. The ones in my cupboard have always been Neosporin, for topical injuries, and antifungal for things like ringworm, nail fungus, athletes foot, and a topical steroid for itch and rash. I guess I haven't read the shelves to be aware of products beyond those simple uses. What I find disturbing are the things added to soap ("antimicrobial") and added to food (to slow spoilage).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Oct 14 - 10:41 AM

Farmed fish are useless in any case. Tasteless and lacking texture. Yuk.

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: olddude
Date: 23 Oct 14 - 12:34 PM

try to get an antibiotic from your doc. Only have you have near pnemonia do they give it to you because of the bacteria getting immume to it. But cattle, fish , chickens they load up the feed. How does that work .. insane

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: gnu
Date: 23 Oct 14 - 01:04 PM

Ed... check out this crap.

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 23 Oct 14 - 01:10 PM

go to the feed store and try to find "unmedicated" feed or milk replacer...

only organic growers avoid additives like hormones, etc., but on the flip side you have to use something if you are stuck with a bottle baby and are at risk of losing them to bloat.

but human nature thinks that if a little is good then more is better... more is just more and as likely as not to be worse.

no easy answers that I've found... sigh

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Ed T
Date: 23 Oct 14 - 07:53 PM

Interesting gnu-I am aware to some changes relating to fish habitat regulations and proposed changes relaxing Environment Canada's regulations related to deleterious materials entering a waterway from aquaculture operations.

But, I have not heard of these proposed changes related to wild salmon. While the NB Conservation Council is a repreputable group, I am surprised thsat the Atlantic Salmon Federation is not making more of a public issue of this? It seems very odd?

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Oct 14 - 11:08 PM

Farming fish is illegal in Alaska. We do have hatcheries but the fry are set free to roam the seas for whatever life span the species has.

As I said, fish farming is illegal here but it is legal elsewhere. On occasion a farmed salmon escapes from a Canadian farm into the Pacific ocean which is also true of the occasional Atlantic salmon - in Alaska we worry about cross breeding and disease.

Speaking of farming, did you know that farmed fish interiors are gray in color? They have to be fed special dyes to create an acceptable salmon color.

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: olddude
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 01:12 AM

Terrible Ebbie I didn't know that honey

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 05:08 AM

You will be getting more from eating any intensively reared meat and milk.

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Ed T
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 05:54 AM

The color that is commonly added to farmed salmon is astaxanthin-canthaxanthin is also used by some producers. Both are a synthetic versions of the substance that wild fish they would be eating that makes the flesh pinker. 

Astaxathin is what is released when wild crayfish and lobster are cooked, giving them a red colour.  In early fish farming natural colour sources were used, such as finely-ground lobster shells and other by-products. In addition to adding colour, Astaxanthin helps young farmed fish gain weight faster and reduces mortality.

The colorant astaxanthin is believed to be a beneficial and powerful antioxidant in and of itself for human consumption.  So much so, that people are taking it in capsule form (one example is krill) to benefit the heart, and joints. While no negative impacts on human health has been found, excessive use of the dye in some tanning beds in the past are believed to negatively impact the eye.

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Ed T
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 08:01 AM

""The Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch® program is a recognized leader in creating science-based recommendations that help consumers, chefs and businesses choose seafood that is caught or farmed in ways that don't harm the environment. Our recommendations indicate which seafood items are "Best Choices" or "Good Alternatives," and which ones you should "Avoid."""




Seafood Watch 

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 10:29 AM

Farm raised fish has no flavor. I'd rather eat less fish and eat the wild fish than waste time and money on farm-raised salmon. I do eat farm-raised tilapia and catfish, they are the kind of fish that are much better adapted to that form of husbandry.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Ebbie
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 12:19 PM

That reminds me, Stilly- family in North Carolina took me up in the mountains to music-in-a-barn. Great fun. Clogging, local bands, great crowd.

The catfish in the buffet line was delicious. They were small and evenly sized so I knew they were farm-raised but they were very good.

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 01:24 PM

raising warm water fishes... catfish, carp & cichlids... is fairly simple and fool proof... though fools do abound, lol. Any decent sized pond/body of water that doesn't get too stagnant will support what we call pan fish. It's when you start messing around with cold water fishes like the salmonids - trout & salmon- that it gets harder. Our department raises mostly salmonids for release into state public waters and also sturgeon and walleyes to help rebuild depleted populations.

Cramped conditions stress the fish and reduce resistance to disease. Our facilities are almost all over 100 years old and rely on public funds to keep in operation. Commercial facilities are usually hocked to the "gills" - sorry, couldn't resist- and they try to maximize production to keep afloat. Why is it when there's problems, it's often bean counters and bankers at the bottom of it all?

Here in the USA, any county Soil & Water Conservation District can help you design a pond and even sell you healthy fish to stock the pond once it's ready and at the correct stocking rate to keep the system going... all you need is the right soil, enough land and good water available.

It's when they start the "mega" farming of crops and critters that the natural system gets over stressed and problems occur.

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 03:05 PM

What part of the country is your facility in, sciencegeek? I grew up in the Pacific NW and there were lots of fish hatcheries around, mostly for salmonoid. Silver, cutthroat, rainbow, etc.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: GUEST,sciencegeek
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 03:45 PM

I'm in western New York & the Caledonia hatchery just celebrated its 150th anniversary. And Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island is the oldest in the country. When I was an undergrad, we fin clipped fingerlings at the Bath Hatchery for a stocking study.

But almost every old farm here has an old farm pond that is stocked with bass or pan fish like bluegills... or a stream that can be fished. We are in the Finger Lakes and Great Lakes part of the state. Lots of freshwater... and ugly invasives to mess it up.

There have been stocking programs for various salmonids to release into the Great Lakes (in conjunction with Canada) and the Finger Lakes has native lake trout which we also stock. The big thing is keeping the lamprey population in check.

I recently worked on permitting a project to enhance habitat for native Brook Trout for the Nature Conservancy. Brown trout and rainbows are released in the spring in various streams and rivers to supplement the natural reproduction... and keep the fishermen happy and supporting the programs.

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Ed T
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 04:47 PM

With most farmed finfish, lack of biological diversity can be one problem (beyond the obvious environmental and ecosystem impacts) when farmed fish escape into the wild. With open pen farming, which is the norm with Atlantic salmon aquaculture in marine estuaries, the risk of escapement is high. Fortunately, escaped farm raised salmon have few wild survival skills and rarely live beyond a season or so.

Unlike in the past, most of todays marine fish hatcheries often restock for angling purposes (put and take), and use pedigree spawning to increase genetic diversity. Regardless, (and depending on the stage of the fish released) the most one can hope for is a margin of the genetic strength which nature provides for fish raised in the wild.

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Ed T
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 05:53 PM

Oops, should have said pedigree breeding, not "spawning" in my last post.

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 05:59 PM

Farm raised fish has no flavor. I'd rather eat less fish and eat the wild fish than waste time and money on farm-raised salmon.

Hear hear! I have a beautiful chunky piece of hake, caught off Bude, for tomorrow. A hint of thyme, garlic, lemon and olive oil and nine minutes baked in the hot oven with my home-made chips. Mmmm.

Subject: RE: BS: Antibiotics in farm-raised fish
From: Ed T
Date: 24 Oct 14 - 06:41 PM

I dont eat farm raised fish. Fortunately, there is plenty of tasty fresh wild fish available where I live. Outside of the taste and potential health issues, I am concerned about the environmental and ecosystem impacts, worldwide. My observation is governments have mostly turned a blind eye to these operations-and until something changes, I prefer to " pass 'em by".