Intensive aquaculture production and adverse environmental conditions can lead to consuming a large amount of antibiotics to prevent and treat these diseases, which brings significant economic and environmental consequences. The Chilean aquaculture industry, the second worldwide salmon producer, has committed to reducing antibiotic use. Based on that effort, we explore in collaboration with the salmon industry the last 6 years of antibiotic consumption performance. Thus, our goal was the application of new indicators that would present and analyze data better and identify the main drives that trigger antibiotic use.
Salmon companies (n=17) provided antibiotics consumption data set from 2017 to 2022. The records include the production at closed cycle, from the three main production regions in Chile; Los Lagos, Aysén, and Magallanes , which is equivalent to more than 90% of national production (>95% of Atlantic salmon and coho salmon and 50% of rainbow trout). The data set analyzed represented 22,200 salmon cages, 1,330 close production cycles, and >5 million tons of harvested fish.
The data was curated to ensure accuracy, coded to safeguard confidentiality and to comply with antitrust regulations, also was validated by comparing different public and private sources of antibiotics consumption information (e.g., SERNAPESCA, global salmon initiative-GSI report, and sustainability reports informed by companies).
Proposed indicators for measuring antibiotic use were ICA (Antibiotic Consumption Index at closed cycle) and Frequency (number of times that farm received treatment at the closed cycle) .
The indicators tested demonstrated efficacy at different levels (species, regional, and country levels) and easy implementation.
Antibiotic consumption data analyzed indicates (Fig.1) that the industry is capable of significantly reducing the use of antibiotics, achieving the reduction hinges on further reductions, individual company accountability, and investments in new and innovative solutions.
Reducing the use of antibiotics is a complex challenge that requires industry action and collaboration with government, academia, and nongovernmental organizations. It is crucial to find solutions to this challenge to ensure the viability of industry, livelihoods, and communities while safeguarding environmental health.