Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Prescription of antimicrobial drugs in Norwegian aquaculture with an emphasis on "new" fish species.
- Journal:
- Preventive veterinary medicine
- Year:
- 2008
- Authors:
- Grave, Kari et al.
- Affiliation:
- Norwegian School of Veterinary Science
Plain-English summary
A study looked at how antimicrobial drugs (medications used to treat infections) were prescribed for farmed fish in Norway between 2000 and 2005. The researchers checked the prescription records against national sales data and found them to be very reliable. They measured the amount of medication prescribed based on the weight of fish, which helped estimate how many fish could be treated. The study found a slight increase in the use of these drugs during this time, particularly for new fish species like Atlantic cod, although the number of prescriptions for cod compared to the amount produced actually went down. The findings also suggested that using quinolone antibiotics alone could lead to the development of resistance to these drugs.
Abstract
The usage of antimicrobial (AM) drugs in farmed fish in Norwegian aquaculture for the period 2000-2005 was investigated by using prescription data. These data were validated against national sales data of AM drugs sold for use in farmed fish and were found to be highly valid. The defined course dose (DCD) was applied as the unit of measurement to correct for the variations in the dosages between different AM drugs. The DCD(kg) was the amount of an AM drug recommended for the treatment of a 1-kg fish. The calculated number of prescribed DCD(kg)s is an estimate of the biomass of farmed fish that can be treated with a certain amount AM drug. In the present study, the number of prescriptions issued (i.e., numbers of initiated treatments), weight of active substance prescribed and biomass treated were applied to describe the usage. An increase, although modest, in the AM drug usage in Norwegian aquaculture was observed from 2002 to 2005. This increase was accounted for by new-farmed fish species (other than Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout), especially Atlantic cod. The increased usage of AM drugs in cod in the study period was significantly positively correlated to the biomass produced; even so from 2001 to 2005 the number of prescriptions for cod relative to the produced biomass declined. The AM drug usage in Atlantic halibut as well as the production varied during the study period. For other species such as turbot, coalfish and wolffish the usage of AM drugs was found to be negligible. "Mono-therapy" with quinolones may present a selective pressure in regard to development of quinolone resistance.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17706818/