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Mythbusters: What's Real and What's Not When It Comes to Fish Drugs
Author(s) -
Bowker James D.,
Trushenski Jesse T.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
north american journal of aquaculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.432
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1548-8454
pISSN - 1522-2055
DOI - 10.1080/15222055.2015.1037474
Subject(s) - business , fish <actinopterygii> , broodstock , risk analysis (engineering) , process (computing) , drug , fishery , microbiology and biotechnology , internet privacy , biology , aquaculture , pharmacology , computer science , operating system
Successful fish culture programs take a comprehensive approach to disease management, broodstock conditioning and spawning, marking progeny, and reducing handling stress. Occasionally, drugs are needed to facilitate these tasks, and the only drugs legally available are those that have been approved for such use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A lack of understanding of the approval process and how these products are actually used in fish culture has led to unfounded concerns regarding potential human health issues, unsafe drug residue levels in fish stocked into public waters, and the discharge of elevated concentrations of drugs in hatchery effluents. The rigorous drug approval process requires extensive data to demonstrate that a drug is safe and effective for fish as well as safe to humans and the environment, that it is manufactured and packaged properly, and that it is labeled to avoid misuse. Further, the approval process assumes a naive user and is structured to ensure that, if a drug is approved, even inexperienced personnel could be expected to apply it safely and effectively. If inexperienced personnel can apply these products successfully, experienced fisheries professionals certainly can. In this paper, concerns and misconceptions regarding the drug approval process and use of drugs in fish culture are addressed from a fishery biologist's perspective.