A new study reported by Sentient Media has found that farmed salmons from Scotland exported to the US may be treated with antibiotics not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and that these compounds are rarely tested for once shipments arrive in the country.
According to the report, Scottish vets are permitted to use certain antibiotics, including flumequine and oxolinic acid, that are not authorised under FDA rules. Despite this regulatory mismatch, the FDA tests only one in every thousand fish imports for such drugs and seldom follows through with enforcement, according to an audit by the US Government Accountability Office. The overuse of antibiotics in salmon farming raises concerns about antimicrobial resistance, a process the World Health Organization links to millions of human deaths each year.
Mark Borthwick, an Open Oxford-Cambridge doctoral fellow who led aquaculture research for the campaign organisation Animal Equality and the Aquaculture Accountability Project, said, “If I was an American and I was eating this salmon, I would be alarmed…The United States import system is failing to meet its own criteria for enforcement in 95% of cases, and lacking in internal systems for tracking progress on food safety. It is based on a trust system which is fundamentally flawed, with a series of biases and blindspots.”
Salmon Scotland, the industry body representing the sector, has said its members do not use any antibiotics that are unauthorised in the US. Earlier this year, however, the group admitted to understating the industry’s antibiotic use by 66%, having reported 1,564 kg used in 2024. Despite producing around eight times more salmon flesh than the UK, Norway used half that amount of antibiotics on its farms the same year.
Compared with British cow farming, the Scottish salmon industry uses just 12% fewer antibiotics per kilogram of animal produced. The US does not publish annual statistics on antibiotic use in its own aquaculture sector, and, according to the FDA, only shipments flagged by an electronic risk screening are tested on arrival.
