Huon Aquaculture uses antibiotic at hatchery

It's been confirmed that Huon Aquaculture used the antibiotic oxytetracycline for 20 days during January to combat a disease outbreak at its freshwater hatchery on the Derwent River 20 km above New Norfolk.

The company has come under scrutiny for not issuing a public announcement to alert residents to the use of antibiotics to treat a disease outbreak linked to high temperatures.

The disease and salmon deaths were caused by an intestinal infection and not the same bacterial disease that led to mass mortalities and the use of another antibiotic, Florefenicol, in salmon pens off Tasmania's South East coast.

There are no disclosure requirements regarding the use of antibiotics in freshwater facilities, despite strict rules and guidelines applying to the use of the antibiotic florfenicol in coastal marine fish farms.

The Environment Protection Authority said "antibiotic residue monitoring had been put in place following the disclosure”.

"The use of antibiotics at Meadowbank Hatchery was self-reported by Huon Aquaculture, noting there is no current regulatory requirement to do so.”

Independent Upper House Member Meg Webb said the situation was concerning.

 "We've got here a really unfortunate, murky lack of transparency.

“And you'd almost think that we didn't learn any lessons from last year when we had a lot of public concern about the use of antibiotics in our marine environment.”

Huon Aquaculture's general manager of aquaculture, Depha Miedecke, said the company was advised by its veterinarian that antibiotics were required.

"The use of antibiotics in fresh water is very rare.

“So it's certainly not something we do regularly at all.

“So effectively what we do is we, in this case, decided to voluntarily speak with the EPA about it.”

The EPA said it was all consistent with EPA practice and results would be published on its website.