Aquaculture, antimicrobial resistance and One Health

Aquaculture is an exponentially growing source of high quality protein for human consumption. A large proportion of the prophylactic and therapeutic antimicrobials used in this activity pass into the aquatic environment. There they select for antimicrobial resistance genes and stimulate passage of these genes into animal and human resistomes. This passage in turn complicates veterinary and human medical treatment of bacterial infections. To protect the health of humans, animals (both farmed and free-ranging) and the environment, the One Health paradigm and the precautionary principle suggest that antimicrobial use in aquaculture should be controlled and curtailed.