Re: [RML] Mycobutin dose

Bruce Hansen (bruceh at powerup.com.au)
Wed, 1 Dec 1999 08:21:41 +1000

Harro makes a good point - except for one small matter perhaps of
translation. If the fish is really "cured" then there is no resistance as
the bacteria are dead. The problem is determining if the fish is cured or if
the infection is only suppressed and will flare up again and this time
(having survived either a drug that it is only partially susceptible to, or
an inadequate dose , or an inadequate period of time) that drug may not be
effective at all.

However since Mycobacteriosis in aquarium fish is small potatoes in the big
picture it is unlikely that the research will be devoted to finding out the
best drug, the appropriate dosage and the optimum duration. Perhaps a
simple, cheap and reliable test for the presence of Mycobacteria activity
(?serological) would be nice too ;-)

Regards,
Bruce.
Bruce Hansen,
president at angfa.org.au
ANGFA Advancing Australian Aquatics, caring for our aquatic ecosystems.
Please visit us at http://www.angfa.org.au

----- Original Message -----
From: HH <Harro.Hieronimus at t-online.de>
To: <rainbowfish at pcug.org.au>
Sent: Tuesday, 30 November 1999 21:38
Subject: Re: [RML] Mycobutin dose

> Adrian gave us an excellent reason why we should _not_ use any antibiotics
to
> try to cure mycobacteriosis. Need an explanation: By curing the fish we
create
> new stocks of bacteria which become more and more resistant against more
and
> more antibiotics (a general problem in the use of antibiotics). So, if you
> accidentally are yourself ill with fish tuberculosis it might be very
difficult
> - in the worst case impossible - to find an antibiotic still working. So
the
> result must be: Hands off from anitbiotics to cure fish diseases. Not
> one domesticated animal like cows or pigs should have antibiotics as we
eat teh
> meat and that may cause the same problem: resistant bacteria. More and
more
> people die by tuberculosis and Staphylococcum aureum as, at least for the
> latter, there is only one antibiotic left (it may be Vancomycin, I'm not
sure)
> and there have been people who already died because none of the
antibiotics we
> know could cure the bacterial infection. That's my .02 cent.
>
> Harro
>