A drug long used by the fish farming industry to control sea lice infestations has become increasingly ineffective on the East Coast and is under scrutiny on the West Coast, according to federal government documents obtained under Access to Information. Slice, which is administered to farmed salmon in their feed, is the only fully registered sea lice treatment in Canada. But the documents show its declining efficacy has forced the industry to seek alternatives – raising concerns that toxic pesticides are being released into the ocean under emergency authorizations.
“Over the last two years,
salmon farmers have noted growing levels of sea lice tolerance to the in-feed lice control drug Slice,” Claire Dansereau, deputy minister in Fisheries and Oceans, wrote in a memorandum for the minister in September, 2010. “It appears Slice is no longer effective unless applied in triple doses. Farmers have been seeking access to other treatment products including hydrogen peroxide, Salmosan, AlphaMax and Calicide.”
Ms. Dansereau’s memo, among 800 pages of DFO documents obtained for The Globe and Mail by researcher Ken Rubin, shows there has been conflict within government over the use of at least one of those pesticides. The note states that in May, 2009, Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency issued “a one-year emergency authorization” for the use of AlphaMax, but that authorization “was initially opposed by Environment Canada on grounds that it would constitute a ‘deleterious substance’ whose use would violate section 36 of the Fisheries Act.”
Ms. Dansereau says the PMRA “issued an Inspector’s Direction to the Chief Veterinarian of the Government of NB forbidding him or any one else in NB to prescribe, possess or distribute AlphaMax.” But later, “through discussion with PMRA and DFO, Environment Canada was persuaded that the amount of AlphaMax involved would not constitute a ‘deleterious substance’ and they withdrew their Inspector’s Direction.”
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-politics/concerns-raised-over-use-of-toxic-pesticides-to-fight-sea-lice/article2166562/
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