Potent drug found in some Asian shrimp
BY DAVID JAKUBIAK, The Island Packet

Published Monday, May 13th, 2002

The discovery of a potentially fatal drug in Chinese-grown shrimp has area shrimpers and seafood distributors demanding increased monitoring of seafood imports and increased awareness among local consumers.

"The FDA needs to beef up the testing for this antibiotic immediately," said Gerie Martin, secretary of the southern chapter of S.C. Shrimpers Association.

On Thursday, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry announced it had found chloramphenicol, a drug linked to leukemia and a deadly form of anemia in humans, in a package of Chinese shrimp bought at a grocery store there.

The drug is ground into the feed of farmed shrimp as a means of reducing crop-destroying bacteria and viruses.

Chloramphenicol does not occur in shrimp caught in the ocean and is banned from use in aquaculture in most of the world.

According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, almost 31,000 tons of Chinese shrimp were shipped to the United States last year. Much of this shrimp winds up in restaurants and grocery stores around the country, including locally.

The Louisiana announcement marked the first time the drug had been documented in shrimp shipped to America. In January the European Union banned Chinese shrimp after finding traces of the drug in shipments there. Earlier this month, the Canadian government placed Chinese shrimp imports on a hold-and-test status after finding the drug there.

The federal government is responsible for testing all food imports to the United States. However, Bob Odom, the commissioner of Louisiana agency, said he decided to order testing of shrimp in his state after the Canadian government announced its findings last week.

"I wanted to know what was or wasn't in the shrimp in Louisiana," he said.

Odom said Thursday he was considering issuing a stop sale order from Chinese shrimp in his state.
Thom Berry, spokesman for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, said South Carolina relies on the federal government for testing food imports sold here.

Ruth Welch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said the agency has yet to document chloramphenicol in any shrimp shipments. The government does not allow even trace amounts of the drug in foods sold in the United States, she said.

The FDA has been testing seafood shipments for the drug since November after issuing an alert on the matter, Ruth said. However, she added, she does not know what percent of imports are being tested.

Chloramphenicol, which has been banned in most Western nations and is prescribed in the United States only for severe ailments such as typhoid fever, has been linked to a variety of blood disorders.

According to a information on the pharmaceutical company Merck's Web site, adverse reactions to the drug occur in less than one out of every 25,000 people.

However, an FDA alert issued in 1992 describes chloramphenicol as a dangerous drug that should only be used in extreme circumstances. "It is now recognized that a potential health risk exists due to a causal relationship between the use of chloramphenicol and the development of a usually irreversible aplastic anemia in man."

The alert goes on to say the mortality rate of the anemia is about 70 percent and "those who recover experience a high incidence of acute leukemia."

The ailment, the alert says, "does not seem to be related to the frequency or level of exposure to the
drug" and "there appears to be a significant subgroup of the population with an apparent predisposed sensitivity." Among these people, the alert says, anemia has been documented even after "extremely low levels of exposure."

For several years, area shrimpers have blamed the proliferation of inexpensive imports for sagging sales and profits. Now, one distributor said, those same imports could provide a boom for the local industry. But it also could trigger fears about shrimp in general.

"If it means less imports, we could really use that," said Charles Gay, co-owner of the Gay Fish Co. on St. Helena Island. "But if there is shrimp scare and nobody wants shrimp, that could kill us."

Contact David Jakubiak at 706-8142 or djakubiak@islandpacket.com.