The counterattack of cited biologist in NYT article
Kate Casey Three months after being quoted by the New York Times in an article* that shook Chile’s salmon industry the Chilean professor of microbiology and immunology of the New York Medical College decided to reaffirm the information he provided for the article and his opinion regarding the salmon industry, in a fiery letter directed to the House President of the Commission of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Pablo Galilea. The news site El Mostrador states, “The silence that professor Felipe Cabello opted for regarding the commotion about the NYTimes article ceased after government authorities and the salmon industry publicly denied the article in its entirety.” Although it has taken awhile for professor Cabello to speak up (since the issue was put to rest last May), his letter to the Lower House Chamber states, “A tremendous breach exists between the declarations of government bureaucrats and [salmon] industry representatives, and the scientific reality and the expansion of the industry. It is impossible to manage a modern industry while ignoring reality, regardless of how negative and surprising it seems.” The reality that Cabello alludes to is his declaration that the Chilean salmon industry uses 70 to 300 times more antibiotics than Norway uses in order to produce one ton of salmon. Cabello’s reality however is a bit outdated and does not carry much weight, since there are only two academic papers supporting his claim, and the most recent being from the year 2005. Similar to the historical development of Norway’s salmon industry, Chile did indeed surpass its point of equilibrium regarding the use of antibiotics, and over the past five years has worked diligently towards the use of more vaccines rather than antibiotics to treat disease.
