Home » Health and Safety News » Agriculture board wants state to test fish imports

Chinese species found with illegal substance

The Arkansas Agriculture Board voted unanimously Wednesday to ask the state Department of Health and Human Services to expedite the testing of imported fish samples for the presence of banned antibiotics. "We're not currently testing in our lab, but we are arranging for capacity to do testing in other [Food and Drug Administration]-approved labs," said Ann Wright, a spokesman for the Health Division of the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Although the FDA is responsible for inspecting imported fish, the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce conducted its own tests of catfish imported from several Asian countries. On Tuesday, the department ordered a halt to the sale of Chinese catfish in Mississippi grocery stores.

Commissioner Lester Spell said in a news release that laboratory tests confirmed the presence of ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin, members of the fluoroquinolones family of antibiotics, which are banned for use in the United States.

"All samples of the foreign catfish tested" - from grocery stores in Pontotoc, Houston, Quitman and Forest, Miss. - indicated the presence of banned antibiotics, Spell said.

The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries conducted similar tests and last week placed a stop-sale order on all catfish imported from China. Commissioner Ron Sparks said 14 of 20 Chinese catfish samples had tested positive for fluoroquinolones.

According to Jackson, Miss.-based Catfish Farmers of America, fluoroquinolones "can cause serious side effects including nerve, muscle and heart problems, as well as allergic reactions." Resistance to fluoroquinolones also can develop rapidly, causing possibly life-threatening consequences for some consumers, the catfish trade group said.

The U.S. catfish industry has been struggling for more than five years to compete against low-cost imports. In 2002, the industry initiated a successful antidumping case against the Vietnamese catfish industry, which led to U.S. tariffs of 37 percent to 64 percent.

In an effort to compete, the Jackson-based Catfish Institute has promoted the quality of domestic catfish. U.S.-grown catfish is raised mainly on farms in Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.

As of Jan. 1, Arkansas, the country's No. 3 catfish producer, had 137 catfish operations that used 30,400 water surface acres, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service. Arkansas' catfish industry generated $79.6 million in sales during 2006.

State Plant Board Director Darryl Little told the members of the Arkansas Agriculture Board on Wednesday that laboratories at the Plant Board and the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission are not equipped to test catfish for the presence of antibiotics.

FDA labs, meanwhile, are backlogged while testing pet foods and animal feeds that contain Chinese wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate for the presence of melamine, a byproduct of fertilizer production, Little said.

Swine feed adulterated with melamine and melamine-related compounds has been traced to eight pork producers in seven states - California, Kansas, North Carolina, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah - affecting approximately 6,000 hogs.

Adulterated poultry feed has been traced to 30 broiler poultry farms and eight breeder poultry farms in Indiana.

The FDA on Tuesday announced the creation of the position of Assistant Commissioner for Food Protection to provide advice and counsel on food safety. Dr. David Acheson was assigned to the post.

This article was published 05/03/2007