DESCRIPTION AND EVALUATION OF A NEW SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM FOR DRUG-USEIN 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 program me is to increase the efficiency of the control of drug residues in fa rmed fish. The programme requires, among other things, both the prescr ibing veterinarian and the dispensing pharmacy or feed mill to send a copy of each prescription for drugs intended for use in farmed fish, t o the Norwegian Government Fish Inspection Quality Control Service (NF CS) within a week and a month, respectively. Moreover, an authorized s tandard prescription form was introduced. The evaluation revealed that drug use in farmed fish was almost fully reported to NFCS, the new sy stem thus being superior to the old, under which less than 70% of the prescriptions were registered. Furthermore, it was found that the info rmation given on the prescriptions was much improved, compared to resu lts from earlier studies. This great improvement could mainly be attri buted to the introduction of the standard prescription form and will g ive NFCS a good basis for effective control of the presence of drug re sidues in farmed fish.