SANTIAGO – Mitsubishi-owned salmon farmer Cermaq reduced its use of antibiotics in Chile by 70 percent in the first quarter of the year.
The Oslo, Norway-headquartered, fully-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation publishes quarterly sustainability results on key indicators related to fish health, environmental, and social topics.
For the quarter running from January through March 2018, Cermaq Chile’s salmon survival rate increased to 93 percent, compared with 92.9 percent in the corresponding period of 2017. Similarly, survival at Cermaq Canada improved from 92 percent to 92.5 percent. However, Cermaq Norway’s salmon survival rate decreased from 94.8 percent to 93.9 percent.
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At the same time, the use of antibiotics in Chile and Canada were greatly reduced for fish harvested in the quarter compared to the same period of last year, the company said in a news release.
Cermaq Norway did not use any antibiotics, but its sea lice counts and sea lice bath treatments were slightly higher than in Q1 2017.
Meanwhile, Cermaq Chile experienced one escape incident where 6,284 fish were lost due to a ripped net. There were no escapes in Canada or Norway.
