Narayan Pillai, deputy director (retired), Export Inspection Council, New Delhi, has stressed the need for reducing the use of antibiotics in aquaculture. He was addressing an aqua seminar by the ITC-ABD Analytical Services at Bhimavaram. Mr. Narayan Pillai, who has over 35 years of experience in the field of sea food, shared his experiences at the Export Inspection Council.
‘Indiscriminate use’
Speaking on the evolution of aqua industry in the past 15 years, Mr. Pillai said that indiscriminate use of antibiotics in aqua industry continues to be a major issue and added that antibiotics can be introduced to the product at any part of the value chain from hatcheries, feed or farm level.
Factories should establish good quality checks to avoid antibiotics at production level. This can be done by internal quality checks, he said.
Factories usually get the product tested by ELISA, which is not 100% accurate (false positive results). ITC Analytical Services introduced a ‘test and buy’ package where the raw material can be tested.
The event was attended by more than 10 major aqua exporters in Bhimavaram namely Jagadeesh Marine, RVR Marine, RDR Marine, Wellcome Fisheries, and Surya Mitra.
Andhra Pradesh is the highest exporter of sea food approximately accounting for 50% of the total annual export from India with major aqua production being from Bhimavaram, Kakinada, Visakhapatnam, Nellore, and Prakasam districts.
