Use of delousing agent stirs debate

Norwegian salmon’s image took a knock in France this week after a national TV program honed in on pesticide use in sea-lice control.

Aired on France 3 on Monday evening, “Pièces à conviction” highlighted the use of the delousing agent diflubenzuron to control sea lice in Norwegian salmon farms. Within hours of airing, the program sparked a dialogue between French Fisheries Minister Bruno Le Maire and his Norwegian counterpart, Lisbeth Berg-Hansen.

According to the minister’s office, as soon as Bruno Le Maire found out about the documentary he contacted Berg-Hansen to ask her about her country’s salmon production. Berg-Hansen replied: “You can reassure French consumers as far as the quality and innocuousness of seafood products from Norway. Diflubenzuron is a veterinary product legally allowed to be used for salmon farming.”
 
According to Berg-Hansen, the pesticide agent “is subject to rules that establish the maximum concentration of active pharmacological substances that can be present in residual form in animal food products.”
 
At 165,000 metric tons in 2008, France is the European Union’s biggest salmon consumer, with Norway representing 97,000 metric tons of France’s salmon supply.

Le Marie on Tuesday sought to reassure French salmon consumers, attesting that the use of diflubenzuron is “strictly controlled and the elimination of the product from the fish flesh is assured by the delay in commercialization, 100 days after its administration [by medication].”
 
In Norway, the National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES) carries out risk assessment and chemical analysis for farmed fish on behalf of the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. NIFES reports that the number of tests per year is determined by the production volume and that most of the samples are of Atlantic salmon. In 2008, approximately 9,000 samples were analyzed.

According to the agency, additional samples were examined in 2009 because of increased use of delousing agents diflubenzuron and teflubenzuron. NIFES explained that surveillance of delousing agents in fish is part of the annual monitoring program on undesirable substances in farmed fish, which is initiated by an EU directive on surveillance of animal food products.

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