A SCIENTIFIC REVIEW
OF THE POTENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF AQUACULTURE IN AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
- VOLUME 3
Table of Contents
ENVIRONMENTAL FATE AND EFFECT OF CHEMICALS
ASSOCIATED WITH CANADIAN FRESHWATER AQUACULTURE
Robert J. Scott, Department of Biology,
The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The freshwater aquaculture industry in Canada is growing and with this
growth comes the potential use of various chemical agents to treat water,
fish or pathogens (e.g. fungicides, disinfectants, anesthetics, pigments,
hormones and antibiotics). Despite the broad range of chemicals used in
aquaculture around the world, only a subset is licensed for sale in Canada.
This review considers chemotherapeutants actively used in Canadian freshwater
aquaculture. Sixteen databases were searched for scientific publications
on the environmental fate and effect of aquaculture chemotherapeutants.
The majority of literature concerns marine systems, with few studies on
freshwater aquaculture and only two directly examining freshwater aquaculture
in Canada.
There are seven chemicals approved for sale when labeled for food fish
use in Canada, including four antibiotic drugs (oxytetracycline, florfenicol,
sulfadimethoxine plus ormetoprim, sulfadiazine plus trimethoprim), one
anaesthetic (tricaine methanesulphonate) and two fungicides/disinfectants
(formaldehyde and hydrogen peroxide) (Health Canada 2001a). Oxolinic acid
has been included in this paper, although it is not currently used on
Canadian aquaculture farms. However, this chemical is very widely used
in salmonid culture outside of Canada, including the United States, and
off-label prescription potential exists where veterinarians can legally
prescribe it. In addition, oxolinic acid provides a wide degree of information
regarding fate and effect data which could be relevant to other antibiotics.
Many studies have been published examining the fate and effect of antibiotics
in marine systems, but few have been published with regard to the same
issues in freshwater systems. As with all intensive animal husbandry,
aquaculture practices create an opportunity for the proliferation and
spread of pathogens that can lead to significant mortality of stock and
subsequent loss of revenue (Dixon 1994). Antibiotics can be administered
directly by injection or by releasing feed containing antibiotics directly
into the aquatic ecosystem. Unconsumed medicated feed is available to
wild animals. In addition, antibiotic-containing feed can accumulate in
the sediments or unabsorbed antibiotics can be released in fish feces
or urinary waste (Bjorklund and Bylund 1990, 1991), subsequently influencing
the natural bacterial flora, an important component of ecological food
webs. Thorpe et al. (1990) estimated that 1.4 to 40.5% of fish feed passed
uneaten through an Atlantic salmon sea-cage. However, this may be a conservative
estimate since diseased fish feed poorly (Bjorklund et al. 1990), and
the majority of active form antibiotic passes unabsorbed through the gastrointestinal
tract of fish (Cravedi et al. 1987; Bjorklund and Bylund 1991; Plakas
et al. 1998). On the other hand, advances in feeding technology (e.g.
underwater video; Foster et al. 1995) and alternative methods of incorporating
antibiotic into feed (Duis et al. 1994) can affect the amount of antibiotic
reaching the environment.
Nitrosomonas spp. and Nitrobacter spp. are important
bacteria for nutrient cycling in freshwater trophic webs converting ammonia
(toxic) to nitrate (non-toxic) (Ricklefs and Miller 2000), but in laboratory
microcosms, oxytetracycline greatly inhibited the processing of ammonia
(Klaver and Mathews 1994 ). During disease outbreaks in catfish ponds,
the use of antibiotics cured the disease, but reduced bacterial conversion
of toxic ammonia to nitrate, allowing ammonia to build up in pond sediments
(Klaver and Mathews 1994).
The evolution of drug resistant strains of pathogenic bacteria is perhaps
the most important implication of antibiotic use in aquaculture. Resistance
to antibiotics is present in bacterial populations naturally (McPhearson
et al. 1991; Johnson and Adams 1992; Spanggaard et al. 1993) and antibiotic
use gives resistant strains the opportunity to proliferate and spread.
Studies that examined antibiotic resistance following drug therapy at
fish farms (Bjorklund et al. 1990, 1991; McPhearson et al. 1991; Nygaard
et al. 1992; Samuelsen et al. 1992a; Spanggaard et al. 1993; Ervik et
al. 1994; Kerry et al. 1996a; Herwig et al. 1997; Guardabassi et al. 2000)
and in microcosms (Kerry et al. 1996; Herwig and Gray 1997; O’Reilly
and Smith 2000) show an increased frequency of resistance to several drugs
across a variety of bacterial species. However, Kapetanaki et al. (1995)
and Vaughan et al. (1996) suggest that increased levels of bacterial drug
resistance can arise independently of the presence of a drug (through
sterile fish feed, sediments added to microcosm studies, uneaten fish
food) and confound studies.
No published studies directly examined the environmental fate and effect
of fungicides, disinfectants and anaesthetics within the scope of this
review, but several studies have examined tissue deposition, toxicity
and stress responses in fish in order to determine appropriate use rates
for these chemicals in aquaculture practice (Xu and Rodgers 1993; Howe
et al. 1995; Schreier et al. 1996; Rach et al. 1997a, b, 1998; Gaikowski
et al. 1998, 1999; Keene et al. 1998; Jung et al. 2001).
In addition to the chemicals discussed above, carotenoid pigments (astaxanthin
and canthaxanthin) are added to aquaculture feed to enhance flesh colour
in cultured salmonids (Guillou et al. 1995; Metusalach et al. 1997). No
studies have been published on the environmental fate and effect of carotenoid
pigments introduced in fish feed. Carotenoid pigments could build-up in
sediments since the molecules are non-water soluble and stable in the
absence of light. Finally, salmonid production can be enhanced by culturing
females only, a condition that manipulates the sex phenotype by exposing
juvenile fish to 17 -alph-methyltestosterone either through immersion
or incorporation in feed. No studies are available on the environmental
fate or effect of this hormone within the scope of this review.
KNOWLEDGE GAPS
- Research is needed on the fate and effect of therapeutants in freshwater
systems.
- Research is needed to identify the causal factors controlling the
distribution, accumulation, and persistence of chemicals in freshwater.
- Research is needed regarding the factors affecting microbial resistance
to antibiotics in freshwater.
- Research is needed to examine the chronic toxicity of antibiotics
and other chemotherapeutants to fish and other freshwater organisms.
- There is a need to develop standard sampling design and analytical
protocols in aquaculture science.
- There is a need for an inventory of therapeutant usage patterns that
includes reports of what is used, where and in what amount.
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