Tasmanian salmon farms blocked from using antibiotic florfenicol after detection in wild fish 10km away

An emergency permit to use florfenicol to treat outbreaks of bacterial disease in Tasmanian salmon farms was issued in November 2025, but has now been suspended. Photograph: Matthew Newton/The Guardian

Australia’s veterinary medicines regulator has suspended the use of florfenicol in salmon in Tasmania because of the “unacceptable risk” the antibiotic poses to other species.

The Bob Brown Foundation said the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority’s (APVMA) decision was an “indictment of the industrial fish farm companies and their complete disregard for the marine environment”.