The use of therapeutic drugs in aquaculture is one of the single most important issues facing aquaculture operations across the country. The crisis is the lack of properly approved drugs to reduce disease-related mortality and improve production efficiency and product quality on both public and private aquaculture facilities. Public concerns about human food safety, human health, and environmental impacts have resulted in increasingly strict interpretation and enforcement of regulations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Such actions have drastically curtailed the availability and use of drugs essential to maintain fish health in hatcheries. Lack of approved drugs and chemicals dramatically reduces the effectiveness and increases the cost of fish production. Over 30 species of fish and shellfish are cultured for food in the U.S. The on-farm value of these animals was estimated at $1 billion for 1992 and the total annual economic activity generated by aquaculture for food at over $8 billion. In addition, some of the fish from private aquaculture are used in public and private recreational fisheries. Baitfish and aquarium fishes add at least $150 million to the value of private sector aquaculture. Some estimates place the economic impact of the aquarium fish industry at over $500 million. Many of the $50-60 billion U.S. recreational fisheries, as well as some commercial fishing, depend upon the production from the 78 federal and 438 state fish hatcheries. Losses to uncontrolled diseases in these facilities have been estimated to be 10-25 percent of the total production, and have exceeded 90 percent in some situations.

Drug and chemical manufacturers are reluctant to undertake the FDA-mandated approval protocols because the $3.5 million expected cost per drug is not warranted by market potential for these products. Only 3 therapeutic (formalin, terramycin and Romet-30) and one anesthetic (MS-222) drugs are currently approved and available to aquaculturists. To address this problem, 39 state fish and wildlife agencies, including the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, have entered into an unprecedented cooperative agreement. Each agency is contributing $100,000.00 over the next 5 years to support efforts to fully certify a few essential drugs that are already being used in aquaculture operations under special F.D.A. provisions. Appeals are being made to the 11 other states that are not yet signatories to the cooperative agreement. The total combined contribution of all the states is still just a fraction of the cost needed to register these drugs with the F.D.A. Despite the fact that the private sector has a vested interest in this matter and will benefit directly, they have contributed little financially to these efforts. Private aquaculture needs to expand its commitment to these efforts and make a good faith effort to generate a stable funding strategy for aquaculture drug approvals.

Click here to go back to the Table of Contents for The Massachusetts Aquaculture White Paper

Published: September 1995