Public hatcheries in the United States, including facilities culturing threatened and endangered fish, are severely restricted by the lack of legally approved medicinal drugs to treat diseased fish. Florfenicol is a drug that has great potential to control and reduce mortalities associated with a number of fish diseases.

Florfenicol was identified by state and federal hatcheries as an urgently needed drug that will be used to reduce disease-related mortalities and improve production efficiency and product quality at public hatcheries. The objective of this project is to conduct regulatory studies required by the Food and Drug Administration to allow the approved use of florfenicol (in feed) to treat bacterial diseases in cold, cool, and warm water fish cultured in public hatcheries.