EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL FOR VETERINARIANS ABOUT JUDICIOUS USE OF ANTIMICROBIALS IN AQUATIC ANIMALS
Introduction
Antimicrobials, including antibiotics, are needed for the relief of pain and suffering associated with diseases in animals, including fish and other aquatic animals that are caused by bacteria, rickettsials, and other microorganisms such as protozoa (coccidia). For food animals, including farmed aquatic animals, the gains that have been made in food production capacity would not have been possible without the ability to prescribe safe and effective drugs to contain the threat of disease in these animals. The increased capacity of the United States to produce aquatic animals for consumption has kept an important source of high quality protein available and affordable for the majority of consumers in the U.S. and other countries. The World Health Organization stated, “Antimicrobials are vital medicines for the treatment of bacterial infections in both humans and animals. Antimicrobials have also proved to be important for sustainable livestock production and for the control of animal infections that could be passed on to humans.”1 The report by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine states: “The benefit to human health in the proper use of antibiotics in food animals is related to the ability for these drugs to combat infectious bacteria that can be transferred to humans by either direct contact with the sick animal, consumption of food contaminated with pathogens from animals, or proliferation into the environment.”2 However, the use of antimicrobials in aquatic food animals is not without risk.
This document has therefore been prepared to help veterinarians treating aquatic animals with their efforts to use antimicrobials judiciously to maintain the effectiveness of these drugs in the treatment and prevention of bacterial diseases of aquatic animals grown for food production, while minimizing the development of resistance in human and animal pathogens.
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