French Island Laboratory Develops New Fish Medication

By Betsy Bloom, La Crosse Tribune, Wis.

Mar. 15–Chalk up another use for peroxide.

Researchers at the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center on French Island have developed the first new waterborne drug approved for aquaculture in more than 20 years — a hydrogen peroxide-based solution that can safely treat freshwater fish and their eggs.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, dubbed Perox-Aid, for use in three diseases in mid-February, said David Lovetro of Eka Chemicals of Marietta, Ga.

The company, part of Netherlands-based Akzo Nobel, now has exclusive rights to market the new drug for seven years under a federal program designed to encourage funding for such research.

Perox-Aid is expected to be used in commercial production, such as tilapia and catfish farms, and in hatcheries that provide stock for public waters.

In the early 1990s, Lovetro’s company began looking at whether peroxide might be used to treat salmon, he said.

But when Canada balked at a trial study, the company turned to the U.S. to see whether anyone already was working with peroxide.

That was happening at the French Island lab, which had been trying a type of hydrogen peroxide as a fish fungicide.

“The more we looked at hydrogen peroxide,” said Bill Gingerich, chief of the chemistry-physiology branch at the center, “the better it seemed.”

Roz Schnick, national coordinator for aquaculture new animal drug applications, put together a proposal to the FDA to study peroxide’s effect on fungal infections in trout eggs.

The FDA’s surprising response, she said, was to green-light peroxide for development as a broad-spectrum drug that could be used on all freshwater fish and egg stocks.

What makes developing an aquaculture drug a “long, time-consuming process” is it must taint neither the fish for public consumption nor the environment it might be released into, said Jeff Rach, a fishery biologist who was part of the research team.

“Is it going to affect the critters in the streams” is how Rach termed it.

The peroxide solution not only met those requirements, he said, but also was effective with cold and warm-water species. It shows promise as well for use in salt water, and for treatment of other types of parasites, fungus and diseases.

It also could be a springboard to perhaps a half-dozen other fish drugs the U.S. Geological Survey is working on at the center, said biologist Randy Hines.

—–

Copyright (c) 2007, La Crosse Tribune, Wis.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

NASDAQ-NMS:AKZOY,