Overuse of antibiotics threatens China’s fish farms, scientists warn
- Researchers say the practice could damage the industry and increases the risk that drug-resistant superbugs will develop
- Use of drugs in overshore fish farms is subject to less stringent regulations than on land
Excessive use of antibiotics could ruin China’s booming seafood industry, a new study has warned.
China produces more than 80 per cent of the world’s mariculture products, but the seafood farms are responsible for dumping large quantities of antibiotics into the ocean - raising the risk that drug resistant superbugs will develop.
Data collected from many locations along China’s 32,000km coast line in recent years suggested that the antibiotics were building up at an alarming pace and were being found in fish and other forms of marine life.
Though most seafood remains safe at present, “the unregulated use of antibiotics has affected the development of our country’s mariculture industry and damaged the image of our aquatic products in the international market,” said the team led by Peking University professor Wen Donghui in a paper published in the journal Marine Environmental Science this month.
The use of antibiotics in off-shore farms is subject to less stringent regulations than on land because of the common belief that the huge body of ocean water can dilute the drugs/
But marine scientists have detected all kinds of antibiotics in thousands of off-shore water samples, according to Wen and colleagues.