New Scottish service aims to speed up sealice medicine ‘gridlock’

A research institute in the Scottish Highlands has set up the country’s first service specialising in sediment analysis for emamectin benzoate, the active constituent of Slice in-feed sea lice treatment for farmed salmon.
The Thurso-based Environmental Research Institute (ERI), which is part of the North Highland College and the UHI Millennium Institute (UHI), also plans to extend the service to offer fish tissue analysis for emamectin.
Salmon farmers using any of the anti-sea lice treatments currently licensed for use in Scotland – including the two in feed ones, Slice and Calicide – must obtain a discharge consent for each product from SEPA (the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency). This means that SEPA must establish safe environmental levels, and monitor to ensure these are not exceeded.
Because Slice is effective against all parasitic stages of lepeophtheirus salmonis, and is reported to be effective over a long period (manufacturers Schering-Plough say there are cases where it has remained effective for up to 20 weeks after treatment) it has proved a popular choice with Scottish salmon farmers. However the time taken for SEPA to complete the modelling process used to determine discharge consents means that an uncleared backlog of applications has built up since Slice was launched on the UK market. Indeed the problem had reached such proportions that SEPA has recently run workshops in the use of its DEPOMOD model, to enable farmers and consultants to do the modelling themselves.
The accredited analysis required has also proved a headache for the industry.
This is a situation which ERI hopes to remedy.

Independent analysis
ERI manager Dr Stuart Gibb told Intrafish: “We’ve established an analytical service to provide a fully-accredited, independent analysis of the environmental impact of emamectin. The salmon farming industry is crucially important to the Highlands and Islands – about 70% of the 6,500 people employed in the industry live in remote areas. At the ERI and UHI we are attempting to initiate research and associated activity that meets the needs of the region. We therefore felt that we had a role to play in providing this service to such a significant industry.”

Service to be expanded
Dr Gibb continued: “We had several organisations requesting environmental impact analysis of Slice. We also understood that nowhere in Scotland was performing this analysis and with a backlog of consent applications, the need for such a service was urgent. In response we have invested in an analytical facility and expertise to provide high-quality, accredited service. By providing completely independent service we feel that we will help ease the apparent gridlock in the industry surrounding the use of emamectin. Where possible, we hope to develop this responsive approach to further address the needs of the aquaculture industry.”

ERI has sent out a mail-shot to salmon producers, to assess interest in providing other analytical services.

”We’re also looking to provide accredited analysis of emamectin in fish tissue, which will allow the suppliers to put an additional quality assurance on their product,” added Dr Gibb.

The EU has placed upper limits for medicine residue in farmed fish in the form of MRLs (Maximum Residue Levels). These are based on scientific assessments of what concentrations of medicine residue can exist in food products without producing significant negative human health effects.

In last year’s national Research Assessment Exercise, which rates universities research record, the UHI came out with the highest results in Scotland for environmental sciences.

Other members of the UHI include the North Atlantic Fisheries College in Shetland, Dunstaffage Marine Laboratory (Scottish Association for Marine Science), and Seafish Aquaculture.