RE: NANFA-- Antibiotics

Jay DeLong (thirdwind_at_att.net)
Tue, 12 Nov 2002 09:48:41 -0800

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At 08:25 AM 11/12/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>However, I'll poke in here, that a good number of people who keep aquariums
>dose the snot out of the antibiotics like the store and books tell them to, it
>fails, and they feel bad "killing" those last two fish.
>
>And then they do what with them?
>
>That's not containment to me, nor any sort of a line.

Todd, I don't know what to say about the self-medicating human visiting the
pet shop, but I think aquarium use of medications-- and the containment
thay can provide with proper use-- is a reasonable and sensible
line. Perhaps the best way to approach the issue is from a risk assessment
perspective. The chance of an aquarist actually producing a mutant
bacterium then releasing it must be many orders of magnitude less than that
of their releasing a natural pathogen. Of course such natural pathogens
may not be native to their local waters, and Voila! You have the Brazilian
Bully Bacterium in Boston. But the problem isn't the pathogen-- that's
just Nature being itself. The problem is the unwise and illegal
release. Therefore, a goal can be to educate aquarists about all the
hazards associated with fish releases.

--
Jay DeLong
Olympia, WA
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