HOME HELP FEEDBACK E-MAIL ALERTS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Related Collections Parasites Treatments Feed and feed standards Medication Salmon (saltwater) Scotland Salmon (anadromous)

SEPA Policy On The Use of Cypermethrin in Marine Cage Fish Farming

Risk Assessment, EQS and Recommendations -- Policy No. 30

Document format: pdf

Publisher: Scottish Environment Protection Agency

Creation date: September 1998

Grampian Pharmaceuticals are seeking a marketing authorisation for a formulation of cypermethrin called Excis which is intended to kill sea lice on salmon. It is likely that SEPA will soon receive large numbers of applications to discharge Excis. The regulatory position of Excis in other countries is described in this report. Cypermethrin has a very high toxicity to crustacea in laboratory tests. Trials with crustacea deployed around fish cages have not shown toxic effects except within the treated cages. This difference seems to be explained by the rapid adsorption of cypermethrin by solids and loss from the water and consequent decrease in toxicity, although there will still be acutely toxic levels close to the cages within a few hours of treatment. Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) have been derived although due to the high toxicity all except short term standards are below analytical detection limits. It is recommended that SEPA controls Excis discharges using a predictive model so that a short term EQS is not breached. It is likely that this will preclude the use of Excis in sheltered sea lochs with low tidal current speeds. More information on the fate of Excis is needed, particularly in sea bed sediments and this will be a condition of the marketing authorisation.

Key Words: Scotland • UK • Salmon • Cage culture • medication • Cypermethrin • Excis • Policy and Regulation • Sea Lice