Tasmania's Natural Resources and Environment Department has confirmed the antibiotic florfenicol was detected at a 'low level' in wild seafood 14 kilometres from where the drug was administered.
The salmon industry was granted an emergency licence to use florfenicol in November last year, but the permit was revoked in March. A "low-level" amount of the antibiotic florfenicol was detected in wild seafood 14 kilometres from where it was used, Tasmania's Natural Resources and Environment Department says.
Many domestic and overseas markets have a zero tolerance policy for traces of antibiotic in wild seafood. The Natural Resources and Environment Department says the area where the detection was made is closed to commercial fishers as a precautionary measure, and that it will "continue to work with the seafood industry regarding the management settings that are in place for those areas".
A "low-level" amount of an antibiotic used to treat farmed salmon in south-east Tasmanian waters was found in wild seafood 14 kilometres away from where it was administered, Tasmania's Natural Resources and Envrionment Department has confirmed.
"The detection was within an area already subject to a temporary precautionary closure, established in consultation with the seafood industry," an NRE spokesperson said. The permit was suspended in March after testing found traces of the antibiotic in wild fish, abalone and rock lobsters 10.6 kilometres away from salmon pens, causing concerns in the seafood export industry. Independent Franklin MHA Peter George questioned Premier Jeremy Rockliff about the detection 14km from a treatment site during budget estimates hearings yesterday morning.
Mr George said the public had a right to know about the latest testing results.
"It needs to be recognised that the export market demands no traces of any form of florfenicol or antibiotics in the flesh of the shellfish that are exported and which are extremely valuable to Tasmania,""And what this means is that the interest of rock lobster fisheries, the interest of abalone fisheries, let alone the interest of anybody who uses our waterways, have been subsumed by the demands of the salmon industry.
"ABC News: Ebony ten BroekeMr Rockliff told the budget estimates committee that while his views and Mr George's views "differ in certain areas when it comes to the salmon industry" they "would be of like mind when it comes to ensuring sustainability and transparency with respect to inputs into the industry". The use of florfenicol over summer was in response to a mass mortality event between January and March last year when more than 13,500 tonnes of fish died from a bacterial disease.
Florfenicol was used at nine salmon farming leases in south-eastern Tasmanian waters, and more than 2.7 tonnes of antibiotics were used at one salmon farm lease in two months. Between January and March last year, 13,500 fish died during a mass mortality event. Testing has been done by both the Environment Protection Authority , in relation to the environmental impact of the antibiotic's use and NRE, which is focused on the trade impacts.
According to NRE, domestic and overseas seafood markets have "extremely conservative or zero tolerance limits for florfenicol residues in non-salmon species". The department has said that while concentrations detected so far are "extremely low and do not represent food safety concern", even trace detections could mean certain products would not be accepted by some markets. The department has temporarily closed some commercial wild fisheries near salmon farms where the fish had been treated with florfenicol as a precautionary measure.
The department said it had "communicated" the detection 14km from the treatment site to the seafood industry.
"The Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania will continue to work with the seafood industry regarding the management settings that are in place for these areas. " The EPA on May 21 released its environmental risk assessment of florfenicol use, which was based on 4,240 laboratory results from the collection of samples of water and sediment.
"Based on all of the evidence, the EPA found the use of florfenicol during the 2025–2026 treatment period posed a low risk of unacceptable harm to marine ecosystems. "This result applies to marine plants and animals but does not include bacteria," the authority said.
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