DESCRIPTION AND EVALUATION OF A NEW SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM FOR DRUG-USE IN FISH FARMING IN NORWAY

A new surveillance programme, introduced in 1989, for drug use in fish farming in Norway was evaluated. The main purpose of this new programme is to increase the efficiency of the control of drug residues in farmed fish. The programme requires, among other things, both the prescribing veterinarian and the dispensing pharmacy or feed mill to send a copy of each prescription for drugs intended for use in farmed fish, to the Norwegian Government Fish Inspection Quality Control Service (NFCS) within a week and a month, respectively. Moreover, an authorized standard prescription form was introduced. The evaluation revealed that drug use in farmed fish was almost fully reported to NFCS, the new system thus being superior to the old, under which less than 70% of the prescriptions were registered. Furthermore, it was found that the information given on the prescriptions was much improved, compared to results from earlier studies. This great improvement could mainly be attributed to the introduction of the standard prescription form and will give NFCS a good basis for effective control of the presence of drug residues in farmed fish.