In 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) reported refusing 203 entry lines of imported shrimp for reasons related to veterinary drug residues. The number of refusals was not only substantially higher than what FDA had refused in the prior three years, refusals increased in frequency as the year wore on. In fact, in the second half of 2014 more than twice the number of shrimp import entry lines (139) were refused for reasons related to veterinary drug residues than in the first half of 2014 (64).
The FDA has now released refusal data for January 2015 demonstrating that this trend has accelerated even further. For the month of January, the FDA reported refusing 185 entry lines of fishery/seafood imports. Of these, 58 – or nearly one-third – are comprised of entry lines of shrimp refused for reasons related to veterinary drug residues.
These data indicate that the FDA refused more entry lines of shrimp for banned antibiotics in January 2015 than for the entire year of 2012. Moreover, the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s review of monthly refusal data going back to 2011 shows that the highest number of shrimp entry line refusals related to veterinary drug residues in a month had been 42 in January 2011.
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