Tassal to inject salmon with antibiotics at Great Taylors Bay

Tassal will inject fish in its salmon farm pens at Great Taylors Bay with antibiotics after they become infected with Piscirickettsia salmonis.

The disease caused mass salmon deaths last summer, and in response, the state’s aquaculture industry used florfenicol to treat fish.

However, the APVMA suspended that antibiotic, so Tassal will instead use oxytetracycline (OTC).

The company will anaesthetise each fish, inject it with OTC, and monitor it before returning it to its pen.

A Tassal spokesperson said the disease outbreak was in its early stages and wanted to act now to limit the spread.

“Injecting OTC directly into individual fish uses only a fraction of the medicine needed for medicated feed and is expected to deliver a more targeted treatment.”

Tassal said it believed florfenicol was the most effective way to treat the disease and hoped to see the permit reinstated.