August 4, 2016

Chile salmon farmers aim to reduce antibiotics use

Several Chilean salmon producers have embarked on a project that aims to reduce the use of antibiotics in the aquaculture sector by at least 50% by 2018.

The project, called Pincoy, was presented this week by Skretting, AquaGen/Blue Genomics, Pharmaq, Centrovet, Cermaq, Blumar and Ventisqueros, and is supported by SalmonChile and the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca).

"The main objective of Pincoy is to reduce the amount of antibiotics used for salmon production in the Chilean industry, and we hope that by 2018 this figure will have dropped to half of what we currently have," said Skretting GM Ronald Barlow, according to fis.com. 

The Pincoy project also aims to address the septic rickettsial syndrome (SRS), since vaccines are inefficient in treating this disease.

According to Sernapesca, the SRS was responsible last year for almost 80% of salmon mortality due to use of antibiotics in Chile.