MONTGOMERY - Seafood Ban (6 brands of shrimp from china have traces of a restricted antibiotic)

fox6 ^

[chance33_98]

MONTGOMERY - Seafood Ban

State Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bishop has banned the sale of six brands of shrimp and crawfish from China because they contain traces of a restricted antibiotic. Bishop announced the ban applies to: Sea Best Raw Salad Shrimp....Sea Best IQF Raw Salad Shrimp Frozen....IQF Frozen Raw Salad Shrimp Sea Best....Sea Best Frozen Whole Boiled Crawfish....Sea Best Whole Boiled Crawfish....and Bernard's Cleaned Peeled Crawfish Tails with Fat. Tests performed by the state Department of Agriculture and Industries detected traces of chloramphenicol. That's an antibiotic that the federal government prohibits in food-producing animals and animal feed products in the United States. Alabama's ban comes a month after a similar ban by Louisiana. Sea Best referred questions about the Alabama ban to its attorney, who was not immediately available for comment.

[chance33_98]

Hmmmmmm...Paging Tom Clancy...

[Lake]

>>six brands of shrimp and crawfish from China

Really? America is buying food from China? Maybe in the future you will need to call China to have your pizza delivered to your house. Yes, by Fedex.

[chance33_98]

Really? America is buying food from China?

Yeah, who says the world is overpopulated and starving? People in china have enough left over to send us.

[Physicist]

That's an antibiotic that the federal government prohibits in food-producing animals and animal feed products in the United States.

Why is this substance prohibited?

[SandfleaCSC]

The drug is associated with random cases (one in 30,000 to one in 50,000 persons) of aplastic anemia, a serious blood disorder for which there is no cure, and which is usually fatal. It is not known why some people contract this condition and others do not. It is not dose-related. In addition, there are concerns related to potential carcinogenicity and genotoxicity of the drug as well as the potential to cause antimicrobial resistance.

Aplastic anemia is a really wicked disease, right up there with ebola in my book. I think the big problem with the drug is the resistance building concern since shellfish and crustaceans are loaded with bacteria. Also watch out for Chinese honey, it seems to be loaded with cloramphenocal. Canada also bans this substance in food animals, but it is approved in human treatments for SEVERE infections.

[corkoman]

chloramphenicol is nasty in that it can cause aplastic anemia - possibly fatal. Its OK when used as an eye drop where it is an effective bug killer. But it is only used systemically when all other options are eliminated.