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| Fish vaccine could end use of antibiotics |
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By: Yan Zhen
Jul 25,2007 |
RESEARCHERS at East China University of Science and Technology have invented a new vaccine that can immunize turbots against a series of fatal diseases, meaning fish farmers will no longer need to use antibiotics that can be harmful to consumers.
The vaccine, which has passed preliminary lab tests, is scheduled to be submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture for further assessment in September.
Even if the vaccine is approved quickly, it will take several years for it to be put into widespread use, university officials said yesterday.
Invented by the university's school of biological engineering, the vaccine is a living bacterium created through modern gene technology.
The main target of the vaccine is vibrio anguillarum, a virus that leads to a fatal fish disease. Farmers will be able to vaccine their stock by simply dipping newly hatched fish in the vaccine solution for a few minutes.
Immune bacterium will directly enter the fish and prevent them from catching diseases, researchers said.
"It's believed to be the most safe and effective method to protect fish from viral infection," said Zhang Yuanxing, the college dean and the research team director, who has been working on the vaccine for nearly eight years.
At present, most fish raisers try to immunize their fish from diseases and raise their output by putting antibiotics in the water or mixing the chemicals in fish feed.
Some antibiotics, however, have been linked to cancer and have been banned by the national food and drug administration.
Last November, turbot raised in Shandong Province were pulled from the local market after the city's food safety watchdog discovered carcinogenic antibiotics residual in fish samples.
The scandal damaged the market and spread fear throughout the public.
"With the new vaccine, raisers don't need to take the risk of feeding antibiotics to fish," Zhang said.
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