Tag Archives: antibiotics
Cocaine in the Water Is Hurting River Eels
The Earth’s waters are laced with drugs—from prescription and over-the counter medications, to caffeine, to antibiotics from personal care products. Marine environments are also tainted with illegal drugs, and a recent study demonstrates just how harmful these illicit substances can be to aquatic wildlife. As Michael Marshall reports for New Scientist, researchers in Italy have found that small amounts of cocaine in water can make eels hyperactive and cause significant muscle damage. >click to read<16:41
Study links fish farms to spread of antibiotic resistance
New research that finds a possible link between fish farms and the spread of antibiotic resistance doesn’t surprise marine biologist Inka Milewski. “Anytime you have animals grown in very concentrated conditions in these intensive livestock operations, whether it’s pigs or chickens, or in this case, fish, you’re going to have the potential for disease problems,” Milewski said in an interview Sunday from her home in the Miramichi in New Brunswick. “The solution to a lot of these problems is to put antibiotics into the feed. And so it should come as no surprise to anyone that they have found antibiotic resistance associated with fish farms.” The study released last week by Jing Wang of Dalian University of Technology in China concluded that genes for antibiotic resistance are getting into ocean sediments through fish food. click here to read the story 09:49
Antibiotics turn US salmon buyers against farmed fish
That’s prompted CostCo, to turn away from farmed salmon from Chile – the world’s second largest producer – due to its record use of antibiotics to kill deadly bacteria in its net pens. According to Reuters, Chile increased use last year to 1.2 million pounds of antibiotics on production of nearly 900-thousand tons of salmon. That’s a 25 percent increase from 2013. Costco – the number three U.S. retailer – used to buy 90 percent of the 600,000 pounds of salmon fillets it sells each week from Chile, accounting for nearly nine percent of Chilean exports to the U.S. Read the rest here 16:53
