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Half of the world's seafood is raised on farms, and some of those fish are bound to get sick at some point. So fish farmers, just like animal farmers, are keen on dumping antibiotics — sometimes in huge quantities — in those fish pens to keep the population safe.
A discerning eater might want to know if the shrimp that hits the plate is laced with drug residues, given that some can cause antibiotic resistance and cancer. But a new study says there's no way to find out, given the sketchy state of seafood import monitoring. |
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"We import millions of tons of seafood, and the testing is minuscule," says David Love, author of a new study in Environmental Science and Technology on drug residues in seafood. Love, a project director at the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University, looked at testing for veterinary drugs in seafood in the United States, Canada, Japan, and the European Union, and compared systems. The U.S. trailed the pack.
Europe inspects 20 to 50 percent of imported seafood. Japan inspects about 20 percent; Canada, 2 to 18 percent; and the U.S., just 2 percent. Love told The Salt: "We don't have enough information to assess the risk." |
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