April 16 - The European Commission has confirmed it is considering imposing emergency measures on shellfish imports from India following repeated cases of contamination of shrimp and other aquaculture products with residues of the banned antibiotic
nitrofuran.
Fluoroquinolones were used most often for UTIs by family physicians, internists, and emergency physicians, and
nitrofurans by ob.gyns, and surgeons.
Dermatologists most often prescribed tetracyclines (75%); emergency medicine physicians, macrolides (42%); ob.gyns.,
nitrofurans (27%); pediatricians, penicillins (38%); and surgeons, fluoroquinolones (25%).
European food regulations make it illegal to use
nitrofurans in the food processing of animals because it could increase the risk of cancerandtheywere banned in 1995.
It is illegal under EU law to use
nitrofurans because of the cancer risk, but the danger from one meal of it is considered low.
Failures occurred most commonly with
nitrofurans (23% of all failures), sulfonamides (21%), fluoroquinolones (17%), cephalosporins (15%), and macrolides (14%).
The move came after two samples of Brazilian poultry shipped to Northern Ireland were found to contain traces of
nitrofurans.
Lyons Seafoods said its Freshwater King Prawns and Premium Quality Raw Freshwater Prawns contain the banned chemical
nitrofurans.
When the prawns were routinely tested by the Food Standards Authority in Northern Ireland, 16 out of 84 samples proved positive for
nitrofurans.
Drugs most commonly administered to animals are penicillins, sulfas, tetracyclines or
nitrofurans. These are also given to humans at therapeutic doses, so where is the hazard at the very low concentrations encountered with residues in food (parts per million to parts per billion)?