abc.net.au – Tasmania’s farmed salmon industry is seeking fast-tracked approval for another antibiotic to be used to treat its fish in pens in public waterways as it continues to grapple with an endemic bacterial disease.
Piscirickettsia salmonis — or P. salmonis — is continuing to circulate in salmon pens in southern Tasmania after a mass mortality event in the summer, with fears over warmer winter and spring conditions.
Crossbench MPs were briefed on Friday, and claim that the urgency was due to a worsening outbreak in at least one part of the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, which they say was confirmed under questioning during the briefing.
Departmental staff avoided using the term “outbreak”, instead describing the disease as “endemic” in multiple regions and that mortalities have not reached reportable levels at this stage.
The EPA report says eight samples of wild fish were taken in the Zuidpool North lease, with three samples — all blue mackerel — testing above the reporting threshold.
Farmed salmon were treated with an oxytetracycline antibiotic during the summer outbreak, when globules of fat from dead fish washed up on multiple beaches.
The industry is now pushing for the use of an antibiotic called Florfenicol — which would require new approvals — and said it had been engaging with the government since February.
Primary Industries Minister Gavin Pearce said oxytetracycline had “limited uses” and that he wanted to push ahead with Florfenicol …
