May 9, 2007

Louisiana to test all imported seafood from China

All imported seafood from China would be tested for banned antibiotics, the state of Louisiana announced.

The move comes after Alabama found antibiotics in 14 out of 20 shipments from China and imposed a ban on Chinese catfish.

State food inspectors have adopted a federal zero-tolerance policy for the antibiotics, called fluoroquinolones.

The change meant that distributors could lose thousands of dollars over the imported seafood in freezers now.

Blaming China and the FDA, Harlan Pierce, chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Research Board said that although he supports the move, distributors in the state brought in the product which the FDA approved.

Farmers in China and Vietnam are said to have used water from questionable sources and used antibiotics liberally on their farmed seafood.

A testing of 14 samples of seafood from the US, China, Vietnam and Thailand showed that one sample from China and one from Vietnam was positive for fluoroquinolones. The seafood from the US was free from antibiotics, the state commissioner said.