Do you know that the fish you consume or the water you drink may contain antibiotic residues?

Let’s talk a little bit about the effects of extensive antibiotic use in fish farming and the fact that fish products and water may contain antibiotic residues. 

First, I have been mentioning the word ”antibiotic” without saying what it means or what it does. An antibiotic is a drug or medicine that is designed to kill bacteria or inhibit bacterial growth. 

When you have an infection and you visit the doctor, the doctor needs to first collect some samples for example, blood, stool, wound swab, mouth swab, sputum etc. from you (depending on what infection you have) and then sends the samples to the lab in order know the bacteria that caused your infection. 

Then, an antibiotic susceptibility test is carried out on the bacteria with different types of antibiotics (ampicillin, amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, vancomycin etc.) to know the particular antibiotic type that can be used to cure your infection. This is the information the doctor will use to prescribe the drug for you and encourage you to use it as prescribed. Please remember that not all infections are caused by bacteria, some infections are caused by viruses and parasites.

Example of antibiotic susceptibility test for bacteria

Okay back to our topic of today….Do you know that the fish you consume or the water you drink may contain antibiotic residues?

Here are the reasons why I asked:

•High levels of antibiotic residues have been detected in fish products: For the people in Europe, you do not have to worry about this because the European Union has banned the use of antibiotics for food animal promotion in 2016. In order countries however, this is a big problem.  The amount of antibiotic residues detected in fish products in many cases exceed the amount permitted by the regulatory bodies of such countries.  

•Contamination of underground and surface water: The major water sources in some countries for example Nigeria are surface water, groundwater, and rainwater. Several antibiotics have been detected in aquacultural wastes in Nigeria and since many fish farms in country lack good drainage the contamination of different water sources in the community (K’oreje et al. 2016)

Then, what are the possible effects of ingesting antibiotic residues? 

•Antibiotic residues destroy gut bacteria designed to protect us: Ingestion of antibiotic residues via fish products or contaminated water may cause damage to our gut microbiome. Gut microbiomes are normal bacterial flora in our gut. They are there to protect us from from the invasion and diseases caused by gut pathogenic bacteria. Some git diseases have been found to be associated with antibiotics continuous ingestions (Jackson et al. 2018).

•As previously state (emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria) antibiotics result into the spread  of antibiotic resistant bacteria. These resistant bacteria cause changes to the overall bacteria community in our body through selective pressure. Important bacterial flora that are susceptible to antibiotics are replaced by antibiotic resistant pathogenic bacteria that are difficult to treat.  

Responsible use of antibiotics in fish farms is therefore important in reducing the spread and the adverse effects of antibiotics resistant bacteria in our lives😀😀.  

References

Jackson, M.A., Verdi, S., Maxan, M.E., Shin, C.M., Zierer, J., Bowyer, R.C., Martin, T., Williams, F.M., Menni, C., Bell, J.T. and Spector, T.D., 2018. Gut microbiota associations with common diseases and prescription medications in a population-based cohort. Nature communications, 9(1), p.2655.

K’oreje, K.O., Vergeynst, L., Ombaka, D., De Wispelaere, P., Okoth, M., Van Langenhove, H. and Demeestere, K., 2016. Occurrence patterns of pharmaceutical residues in wastewater, surface water and groundwater of Nairobi and Kisumu city, Kenya. Chemosphere, 149, pp.238-244.