Chinese Fish Farmers Use Bird Manure for Feed

Bloomberg Markets Magazine recently published an online article detailing the unsanitary habits of the seafood business in Southeast Asia. The news source reports that at one exporter in the coastal Vietnamese city of Cá Mau, workers sort fish on dirty floors covered with trash in a warm room where flies swarm about. In another Cá Mau location, fish are preserved with ice made from tap water that the Vietnamese Health Ministry says should be boiled before consumption due to its high bacteria content, which can taint the fish and infect consumers. Bloomberg also notes that Chinese fish farms resort to using bird manure contaminated with salmonella as feed in order to keep up with competitors. Both Vietnam and China are major US seafood exporters—8 percent of the shrimp Americans eat comes from Vietnam, while approximately 27 percent of seafood consumed by Americans comes from China.