Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL (CP Foods) announced progress to reduce use of antibiotics in aquaculture along with other sustainability efforts as part of the Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS) initiative. SeaBOS is a group of ten of the largest global seafood companies working towards more sustainable seafood production and improved ocean health.
As part of SeaBOS’s collaboration, several task forces were created to focus research and development towards each of the main sustainability commitments. CP Foods COO Sujint Thammasart said the company is one of the leaders of Task Force III, which aims to develop solutions with governments on key threats to sustainable seafood and ocean health. The special focus of the group is to achieve improved antibiotic stewardship in SeaBOS and the industry.
Sujint said that the group is researching ways to avoid the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in humans and animals. High bacterial infections in fish in aquaculture has historically been fought with antibiotics, leading to persistence in the aquatic environment and the proliferation of antibiotic resistant bacteria. This ultimately threatens the ability to treat common infections with previously used drugs due to bacterial resistance and mutations.
“The working group will work together to finalize the 'SeaBOS Antibiotics Code of Conduct' by October 2022, and the SeaBOS member companies will implement the Code of Conduct in their own businesses as well as transferring it to suppliers in their supply chains of both animal feed production and aquaculture farms,” said Sujint.
CP Foods has applied a policy regarding antimicrobials under their “One Health” approach to protect the health of people, animals, and the global community. This policy includes three main points: antimicrobials medically important for human medicine are only used for therapeutic uses under veterinary oversight, the elimination of shared-class antimicrobials (medically important for human medicine) for growth purposes, and engagement with global experts and partner with all stakeholders to identify new and better ways to enhance animal welfare and reduce the need for these antimicrobials.
The collaboration has made efforts to tackle urgent challenges in the seafood sector including applying global regulations throughout the supply chain, promoting legal fishing, eliminating illegal labour, developing traceability systems, refraining from using antibiotics, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the use of plastic.
Among those efforts, CP Foods collaborated with the Labour Protection Network Foundation under the “Labour Voice and Worker Training Program” with a key goal of certifying over 200 shrimp farms and factories across the country in accordance with labour standards by 2022.
CP Foods also launched the “Ocean Trashformation project” in 2021 to reduce plastic waste in the oceans by collecting it from fishing activities and recycling it into valuable products.
Photo courtesy of CP Foods
