Overturned truck carried 8,000 smolts from AquaChile, locals told not to eat the Lufenuron-treated fish

The truck that overturned on Wednesday afternoon on a street in Puerto Montt, Chile carried 8,000 smolts from an AquaChile fish farm, according to local media.

The local health department asked the people that picked up the salmon floundering on the street not to eat the salmon because they have just had antiparasitic treatment.

Locals carrying plastic bags scramble to catch salmon that spilled out of the overturned truck (on the left) on a street in Puerto Montt in Los Lagos, Chile. Local health authorities asked the public not to eat the fish as they were treated with antiparasitic drug.Photo: Nestor Manquian via Bibliochile

“These smolts had received an antiparasitic treatment with the drug Lufenuron on June 28 and 29, so they were in a deficiency period. This means that this antiparasitic could be harmful to people’s health, and therefore we ask the population not to consume these salmon under any circumstances,” Carlos Manuel Becerra, an official with the health department in Los Lagos, was quoted as saying by Mundoaquicola.

After taking the injured driver to the hospital, firefighters worked to control the spill and prevent the leak of oxygen in the truck’s equipment tanks, the report said.

The transport company was tasked with removing the fish and the subsequent disinfection of the streets.

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