The use of pharmaceuticals

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The use of pharmaceuticals

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Fish health

Antibacterial agents in fish farming
Deltamethrin
Emamectin
Teflubenzuron
Pharmaceuticals used for combating salmon lice

Bellona, 11/01-2009

In fish farming where you find fish in large concentrations you will get problems with disease. To deal with disease outbreaks, a number of measures such as various medications are used. Farmers use pharmaceuticals to treat bacterial diseases, sea lice and other parasites. The following table summarizes the type of medication and amount used per year.

	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Antibacterial agents	1044	556	671	591	685	645	1219	805	1159	1215	1428	649
Anesthesia agents	593	781	689	524	864	944	1328	1201	1240	1360	1623	1914
Endo- and ectoparasites	1904	2507	2119	732	800	648	669	759	854	678	797	721
Total	3541	3843	3479	1847	2349	2237	3216	2764	3252	3253	3848	3284

Source: The Norwegian Institute of Public Health

Antibacterials (per kg active ingredient)

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Florfenicol	109	205	154	111	202	302	139
Flumequin	7	5	60	4	28	7	18
Lincomycin/ Spectinomycin (1:2)	-	-	-	-	-	50	67
Oxytetracycline	12	11	45	5	8	0	19
Oxolinic acid	517	998	546	1035	977	1119	406
Total	645	1219	805	1159	1215	1478	649

Anaesthetics (per kg active ingredient)

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Benzocaine*	500	500	500	500	400	400	700
Chlorbutanol	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Metacaine	440	827	699	737	960	1216	1214
Isoeugenol**	3	1	1,5	2,5	-	6,5	0

*calculated sales for fish breeding. Benzocaine is also used in human medicine.
**Isoeugenol is only used for research.

Sea lice treatment (per kg active ingredient)

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Cypermethrin	69	62	59	55	45	49	30
Deltamethrin	19	23	16	17	16	23	29
Teflubenzuron	28	-	-	-	-	-	-
Emamectin	12	20	23	32	39	60	73
Total	128	105	98	104	100	132	132

Anthelmintics (per kg active ingredient)

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Fenbenadazole	21	8	2	23	78	27	1
Praziquantel	100	152	232	412	122	145	94
Total	121	160	234	435	200	172	95

Fungicides (kg active substance)

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Bronopol	392	396	422	314	377	492	493
Malachite green	7	8	4,5*	0,7*	0,9*	0,9*	0,8*
Total	399	404	427	315	378	493	494

*Has not been used in production of fish for human consumption.

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