Day 4 | World Antimicrobial Awareness Week: Dive into Seafood Antibiotic Testing
It’s the final day of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week and we are bringing our information packed week to a close by talking about antibiotics in seafood!
The global aquaculture industry is thriving with a compound annual growth rate of 3.6% from 2021 to 2026 due to a growing population that recognise the benefits of seafood as part of a healthy diet. According to World Wildlife Fund, over three billion people are dependent on seafood as a source of animal protein. This increase in aquaculture production and farming has led to a rise in the need to use antibiotics to treat bacterial diseases. However, more commonly they are used to treat aquatic animals either directly through feed or indirectly by adding triphenylmethane dyes and other antibiotics to aquatic water to prevent diseases before they occur.
The most used antimicrobials in the global aquatic industry in 2020 were reported as 27% quinolones, 20% tetracyclines, 18% amphenicols, and 14% sulphonamides. Extensive use of such antibiotics can lead to antibiotic resistance in aquatic species, resultantly residues can be present within food products which may be passed onto consumers and could cause health issues.
To ensure the production of safe seafood Randox Food Diagnostics provides a range of screening solutions using our revolutionary Biochip Array Technology to test multiple drug residues from a single sample on the Evidence Investigator analyser.
We also have several ELISA kits including our most recent Malachite Green FAST ELISA validated for catfish, prawn and shrimp. Malachite green is one of the most prevalent triphenylmethane dyes used in the seafood industry as a fungal infection treatment, which metabolises into leucomalachite green and can remain in aquatic animal tissue for an extended period leading to potentially toxic health problems if consumed by humans.
To find out more information on our reliable screening arrays available for antibiotic drug residues used in seafood please contact us at: info@randoxfooddiagnostics.com