La. to test Chinese seafood for banned antibiotic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Chinese seafood will be tested for a banned antibiotic before it can be sold in Louisiana, the state Department of Agriculture and Forestry says.

The department said it would test Chinese seafood for the antibiotic fluoroquinolone, which has been banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“I’m disgusted by other countries trying to harm our people and animals with tainted food products,” Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Bob Odom said in a statement. “This has got to stop.”

Fluoroquinolones were previously found in Vietnamese seafood in 2005 and seafood from Vietnam is screened before it is sold in Louisiana, the department said.

Alabama’s agriculture commissioner alerted Louisiana officials about the possibility of fluoroquinolones in Chinese catfish last week, Odom said.

Last week, the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce announced it had ordered a halt to the sale of Chinese catfish in Mississippi grocery stores after tests found ciprofloxacin and enrofloxacin, members of the fluoroquinolones family of antibiotics, which are banned for use in the United States.

The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries conducted similar tests and last month placed a stop-sale order on all catfish imported from China. Commissioner Ron Sparks said 14 of 20 Chinese catfish samples had tested positive for fluoroquinolones.

Last week, U.S. Rep. Mike Ross, an Arkansas Democrat, said that he has asked the FDA to ban imported Chinese fish being sold as catfish until an investigation is complete.

Catfish Farmers of America, a trade group based in Jackson, Mississippi, says fluoroquinolones “can cause serious side effects including nerve, muscle and heart problems, as well as allergic reactions.” Resistance to fluoroquinolones also can develop rapidly, causing possibly life-threatening consequences for some consumers, the catfish trade group said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has already raised concern about the presence of melamine, a byproduct of fertilizer production, that turned up in pet food that used wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate imported from China.