Chilean salmon industry used 338 tonnes of antibiotics in 2012

Chile: The local salmon industry used more antibiotics in 2012 than in the past four years. Allegedly, due the increased biomass of fish in the water. The most frequent combination was florfenicol in Atlantic salmon against SRS in the Region of Aysén.

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Christian Pérez

According to the report on use of antibiotics recently published by the National Service of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Sernapesca), the local salmon industry used 337.99 tonnes of antibacterial agents in 2012, representing a 63.4 percent increase compared to the previous year (206.8 tonnes).

Likewise, the industry used 143.2 tonnes of antibiotics in 2010, 184.5 tonnes in 2009, 325.6 tonnes in 2008 and 385.6 tonnes in 2007. This means that the local use of antibiotics in 2012 is only comparable to that in those years prior to the sanitary crisis triggered by the ISA virus.

Furthermore, the report of Sernapesca explains that this situation can be attributed to the higher biomass being farmed. When looking at the consumption of antibiotics in relation to the biomass of fish, both decreased after the so called "ISA crisis". And, once the biomass of fish started increasing, the consumption of antibiotics did the same.

Atlantic salmon was the species with the largest share in the use of antibiotics (62%), followed by Rainbow trout (30%) and Coho salmon (8%). Likewise, florfenicol was the antibacterial agent most frequently used (54%), followed by oxytetracycline (43%), and amoxicillin, flumequine and erythromycine, with 1 percent each.

Regarding the pathogens causing use of these antibiotics, the report of Sernapesca explains that 82 percent of the antibacterial products were used against SRS, followed by BKD (7%), flavobacterium (5%) and flexibacteriosis (4%).

Regarding geographical distribution and in contrast of the situation in 2011, the Aysén region had the highest antimicrobial consumption with 52 percent and followed by Los Lagos region with 43 percent.

Use of antibiotics in Chile

Source: Sernapesca
* Calculated over preliminary harvest figures from 2012