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Mullet industry moves toward better practices, Fisheries Agency bans estrogen and promotes natural farming

General News By Emily Carter 0 views

(Editor's note, March 2017 report: After the mullet news was published in January, there was much discussion and response from all sides. In March 2017, News & Market again launched "The critical moment for mullet is here! How do you want Taiwan, China to farm mullet?", interviewing more people from industry, government and academia, compiling eight major controversies and eight important viewpoints, and inviting everyone to vote and express their opinions. Please click here.)

Text by News & Market reporters Cai Jiashan and Lai Yuwei

In response to yesterday's News & Market report on farming mullet with estrogenFisheries Agency publicly responded: According to the relevant provisions of the Feed Control Act, estrogen is not listed within the "Detailed Categories of Feed and Feed Additives" announced under the Feed Control Act, and therefore estrogen may not be added to feed for use. Starting this year, estrogen will be added as a new item in random feed testing, and guidance will be strengthened to prevent feed processing plants from manufacturing estrogen-containing feed. Violators will be punished according to law, in order to safeguard the food safety of aquatic products.

"If the law does not write it, then it cannot be added," said Huang Hongyan, Deputy Director-General of the Fisheries Agency, clearly. Since outsiders have doubts, "to put it simply, we do not want them to use it." "The mother fish itself secretes it, so there is no need to intervene with external forces." He further stated that in the future, together with the Taiwan Fisheries Research Institute, the agency will promote natural farming methods, "and this will also be good for fishermen."

The Fisheries Agency calls on aquaculture operators not to feed estrogen-containing feed in order to reduce public concerns, and will request the Taiwan Fisheries Research Institute to accelerate the ongoing "Research and Development of All-Female Mullet Fry Breeding Technology" project, hoping to achieve all-female mullet fry breeding technology through selective breeding as soon as possible, in order to respond to industry demand and to guide and promote fishermen's aquaculture.

The Fisheries Agency also explained that in years 99 and 103 of the Republic of China calendar, it commissioned experts to test estrogen in farmed and wild mullet roe, and the test results showed no non-natural estrogen, so estrogen was not included in feed inspection items. However, when reporters further requested that the Fisheries Agency publish the research report, they were declined. The Fisheries Agency stated that in the future it will continue to strengthen and implement pre-market aquatic product origin monitoring work, as well as random testing of aquatic feed, inspection of farms using prohibited drugs and punishment according to law, so as to carry out industry guidance and source control well.

Animal drug use has strict operating rules, and there is no record at all of estrogen use in mullet

According to our country's "Guidelines for the Use of Animal Drugs," all aquatic animal drug use must comply with the "Regulations on the Use of Aquatic Animal Drugs"

Since all animal drug use processes must be this cautious, the same applies to estrogen use. But because estrogen is currently not within the scope of legally usable drugs, there is a complete lack of information on how exactly it is used in mullet farming. Feed mills have not indicated which estrogen ingredient is included in the formula, nor explained the content, and there is also no written record of when fishermen feed it, how much they feed, or whether they observe a withdrawal period.

Although some people in the industry believe that estrogen is very expensive, that fishermen will not use it excessively, and that it metabolizes quickly in fish bodies, so there should be no concern about residues, because the method of use during the farming process cannot be grasped at all, and there is no systematic monitoring of feed and products, there is still insufficient data to guarantee that the final products are safe and free of concern.

Wu Guanzhong, Assistant Professor in the Department of Aquaculture at National Taiwan Ocean University, believes that the estrogen most easily obtained by feed mills should be E2 (estradiol), which after entering the fish body is converted by enzymes into E1 (estrone), then excreted from the body and will not accumulate in the body. "The key is standardization of the timing of use and harvest time, just like pesticide use." If harvesting occurs one to two years after use, basically the possibility of residue is not high.

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