Call for action to halt farmers’ use of antibiotics for fish, prawn stocks as drug-resistance fears grow

By The Nation

 

File photo

 

Some farmers sprinkle antibiotic medicine onto their fish and prawn stocks that are kept inside floating baskets either in enclosed ponds or natural waterways, a practice that poses the dual threat of drug resistance in consumers and environmental pollution, experts at Chulalongkorn University said on Monday.
 

Such misuse of antibiotics in the fishery sector has been reported from various areas in Thailand, including their use in floating baskets in rivers, said Niyada Kiatying-Angsulee, manager of the university’s Drug System Monitoring and Development Centre.

 

She urged the authorities to check and stop such antibiotic-medicine misuse, which was done to prevent disease among aquaculture-farmed animals, according to some farmers. 

 

“It is worrying because studies have showed that there would be 10 million drug resistance-related [human] deaths per year in Thailand in the next three decades if nothing concrete is done to curb this issue now,” Niyada explained. 

 

In related news, Public Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr Sukhum Kanchanapimai on Monday confirmed that he had already assigned the Food and Drug Administration and the Medical Sciences Department of the ministry to join with respective provincial health offices to check on orange orchards’ reported use of the antibiotic amoxicillin to treat citrus greening disease, following the Drug System Monitoring and Development Centre’s report of such misuse late last week.

 

“The drug-resistance issue is a national matter that must be dealt with [by acting on all aspects] together," Sukhum said.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30358869

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-11-19

Stop using antibiotics now please, .. a lady at the market sneered when she pulled back an ear of sweetcorn and saw a grub eating the corn. I told her it was a good sign the farmer was not spraying insecticide on the crop. Not antibiotics but same principle.

Not only fish... First of all, Authorities, must explain to the farmers what is the meaning of the word antibiotic.

40 minutes ago, Tarteso said:

Not only fish... First of all, Authorities, must explain to the farmers what is the meaning of the word antibiotic.

They know , they don't care they probably don't even eat their own products.

The problem is they overstock the ponds,fish cages,and

have to use antibiotics to keep the fish free from disease,

regards worgeordie

And what about the wholesale use in the Pig farms?

The problem also extends to human consumption and doctors handing them out willy nilly without advising patients of the dangers.  But hey do the usual, talk a lot, organise some lunches and photo ops and then wait until its too late.  This news has been repeated year after year for 20 years years without anything being done.

What is it with the Thai love affair with chemicals, pesticides or antibiotics... don't they understand the implications of these methods, just don't care or are not educated to the alternative methods available to them...

Farmers only care about profit. This wont stop as it gives them more profit. They dont care who dies because of it at all.

The government can't even enforce traffic laws no way they will enforce this.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

Don't know how they can stop it.

it's been going on years, and the chemicals and drugs are easy to get hold of.

and it's all about profit at any cost. 

 

18 hours ago, Tailwagsdog said:

Stop using antibiotics now please, .. a lady at the market sneered when she pulled back an ear of sweetcorn and saw a grub eating the corn. I told her it was a good sign the farmer was not spraying insecticide on the crop.

Which is a good reason to reject it.  Not using fungicides may permit the unchecked growth of mycotoxin-producing fungi. 

 

And losing a huge percentage of produce to pest damage is not a good thing.  This is what produce looks like without pest control:

 

 

I think more people are likely to reject that potato than to carve it up and throw away 50% of it.

 

As for the topic, I agree that indiscriminate us of antibiotics should be curtailed.  Medication should be used only on an as-needed basis (a sick cow), should require supervision by a licensed vet, and any meat or dairy that comes from said animal must test free or pharmaceutical residues by the time it goes to market.

Shocking is the utterly stupid practice to put the antibiotics into the floating cages in streams.
Absolutely useless.
That shows the education level of most farmers and that they only believe the salesman at the chemical shops or representative from that companies.