The use of antibiotics has always been controversial when discussing farmed animals. While there are significant laws and rules in place for regulating the use of antibiotics in terrestrial animals, the same can not be said for aquatic animals. A recent study* sought to expose the risks of overusing antimicrobial (antibiotic) agents in aquaculture. Due to the size and scale of many fish farms, the use of antibiotics is necessary to prevent outbreaks of disease and to ensure farmed fish remain healthy before going to market but this can have an adverse affect on humans. This can lead to an increase in the number of drug resistant bacteria and these drug resistant bacteria can then exchange resistances with other bacteria through a process known as horizontal gene transfer. The concern is that the antimicrobial resistances these aquatic bacteria have can be transferred to human pathogens. These drug resistant bacteria can lead to increases in the number of people getting sick, the amount of time needed for recovery, and an increase in the frequency of treatment failure due to bacteria's resistance to antibiotics. The authors propose solutions that include the need for better regulations and a robust monitoring system to ensure that the correct amounts of antibiotics are being applied. The use of antibiotics is one of the criteria FishWise takes into account during the color ranking of aquaculture to warn seafood vendors and their consumers.
* Heuer O.E., Kruse H., Grave K., Collignon P., Karunasagar I., and Angulo F.J. 2009. Human Health Consequences of Use of Antimircobial Agents in Aquaculture. Clinical Infectious Diseases 49:1248-1253.
