Consumers of tilapia, have been advised against patronising unusually large sizes of the fish, produced by fish farmers in the country.
This is because fish farmers often lace their feed with antibiotics which increases the size of the tilapia, but in the long run, are harmful to human beings.
Speaking at an awareness creation workshop, dubbed “Project Safe Fish” in Accra, a Research Scientist with the Water Research Institute of the Centrer for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR, Dr. Etornye Agbeko, said the initiative will serve as a pragmatic intervention against harmful practices by fish farmers in the Aquaculture Sector.
The project dubbed: “Safe fish” is an initiative sphere headed by the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research, to develop an alternative to the use of antibiotics in fish farming.
A research Scientist with the CSIR, Evans Agbemafle, said the project will prioritize phage, as a much safer alternative to antibiotics.
Although the project is targeted at fish farming in general, its primary focus is tilapia. This is because tilapia is the most preferred fish in the country, consumed by about 90 percent of the population.
The high demand for tilapia appears to have created an avenue for tilapia farmers to explore by applying antibiotics to increase the size of the tilapia, to make profit.
A Research Scientist with the CSIR, Dr. Etornye Agbeko cautioned the public to stay away from tilapia that is unusually large.
The three-year project is being implemented in Uganda and Ghana.