January 12, 2006

 

Preservatives killing fish in Vietnamese farms


 

As much as 10 percent of fish in Vietnamese farms in the Dong Thap province may have died of diseases, said the country's Ministry of Fisheries.

 

This is likely to be caused by overuse of chemicals and unclean water, some experts have deduced, resulting in a liver disease caused by the bacterium Aeromomas sobria that killed as much as 75 tonnes of fish in the previous week.

 

While Dong Thap, a southern province in Vietnam, has lost 5-10 percent of its cultured fish to diseases, other southern provinces Tien Giang, An Giang and Vinh Long have also lost 2-3 percent of stocks.

 

Fertilisers, chemicals and pesticides used in rice fields near fish ponds may also be responsible for the high mortality in fishes. Increasingly, aquaculture is integrated into rice planting, especially in provinces in the Mekong Delta.

 

This is a wake-up call for fisheries to have better and cleaner fish breeding procedures, said Deputy Minister of Fisheries Nguyen Viet Thang.

 

The Ministry of Fisheries also warned breeders against using liberal amounts of antibiotics to prevent and cure diseases and has ordered that farmers regularly renew the water in tanks.

 

Demand for processed seafood has increased by more than 35 percent since 2004 and is expected to increase to 500,000 tonnes this year, according to the Fisheries Association.

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