Two-headed fish probe flawed: vet
June 9, 2011
Brisbane, AU – A vet has savaged the findings of his own taskforce after it
found no definitive link between farm chemicals and two-headed fish at a
Queensland hatchery.
Fish scientist and vet Matt Landos was part of a taskforce formed to look at
deformities, including double-headed and three-tailed fish, at the Sunland
Fish Hatchery near Noosa. But Dr Landos says its majority finding – that
chemicals used on a neighbouring nut farm could not be definitively blamed –
is seriously flawed. He says the taskforce was stacked with bureaucrats and
others who lacked the right scientific expertise to make a proper judgment.
Among its members were 10 scientists, six government communication and
policy officers, and the chief executive of the Australian Macadamia
Association.
The scientists included toxicologists, Queensland’s chief biosecurity vet
and environmental health officers who concurred with the majority finding.
Dr Landos and vet Roger Chong, the government’s aquatic animal expert, did
not agree with the finding. “There is a high likelihood that the chemicals
caused the deaths and deformities,” Dr Landos claimed. “On four occasions we
took larvae to another property. The ones on this property survived while
the ones at the hatchery did not and some of the dead had deformities.” He
said much of the residue testing was poorly timed and samples were collected
long after any spray drift might have occurred.
Taskforce chairman and Biosecurity Sciences director Jim Thompson has
defended the findings, saying they were based on expert opinion, backed by
independent toxicologists. He said the investigation carried out all
monitoring that was possible at the time but noted some of the incidents
happened before the taskforce was formed.
Disease, ……….
See the source for the full story: http://tinyurl.com/3kqgo4y
