One of the goals is to reduce antibiotic use in salmon farming by 25% over a period of four years.
Sernapesca
Chile aims to enhance sanitary control and food safety for international trade and research in the country's salmon farming sector to promote sustainable activities with high standards.
For this reason, the National Director of the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (Sernapesca), Soledad Tapia Almonacid, and the Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (Favet) at the University of Chile, Dr. José Manuel Yáñez López, have formalized their collaboration in this area.
One of the new developments is that Favet will have easier access to public information to develop internships, courses, seminars, and workshops for both Sernapesca officials and members of the faculty's academic community.
Regarding this, Yáñez López stated that "the generation of knowledge allows for informed decisions based on scientific evidence in various topics of national fisheries and aquaculture, as well as offering training opportunities for service professionals."
First, they have agreed to carry out the project 'Surveillance, Alert, and Response System' (SVAR), which aims to reduce antibiotic use in salmon farming by 25% over a period of four years.
To achieve this first objective, a monitoring platform will be created along with a set of measures to optimize the use of these pharmaceuticals, supported by a working group. Other academic institutions and the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions (ICARS) will also participate in this project.
In addition, they will work on animal health control programs, monitoring of hydrobiological organisms, food safety for aquaculture and fisheries for export purposes, and sanitary control for the import of live species such as ornamental fish.
"Sernapesca has had close collaboration with FAVET for many years, and being able to strengthen this work with two new agreements is of great importance because it allows us, as a public service, to have data and scientific analysis of the results as support for decision-making in various areas of environmental, sanitary, and marine fauna protection management, also generating more trust among the public," clarified Tapia.