Freshwater prawn farming ASSESSMENT OF ANTIBIOTIC RESIDUE LEVEL IN AQUACULTURE IN THE ALBANIA A. EMIRI*, E. MARKU † *Tirana University, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Chemistry Department Bulevardi Zogu I, Tirana, Albania email :emirialma@yahoo.com Abstract The Albanian aquaculture industry is expanding rapidly, especially the production of freshwater aquaculture fish. Fish and shellfish are regarded as a rich source of nutrients embodying the healthy lifestyle. However aquaculture fish like all animal or human beings, are subject to a large range of diseases, which can be quickly prevented or cured by applying chemicals or veterinary drugs. No study for antibiotic residues risk assessment has been conduced, in freshwater aquaculture fish at farms and markets, in Albania. The objective of this study was to assess the level of antibiotic residues in freshwater aquaculture fish at farms and markets by Premi®Test. The results showed that contamination by antibiotic residues occurs only at the farm level not at the markets. This demonstrated the fact that the freshwater aquaculture fish from Albania sampled in different periods of the year were safe for human consumption. Keywords: Aquaculture, Veterinary drugs, Antibiotic, MRL Introduction The aquaculture fish industry in Albania is growing rapidly. Fish production according to the different water categories has changed over the last few years. At the beginning of the 1990s, Albania inherited about 35 aquaculture farms and hatcheries from the previous political regime. After privatization and the economic transition, almost of them went out of operation. However, during recent years investments have been carried out to set up new farms with more suitable species for the market and new approaches of aquaculture farming including sea farms with cage culture (Department of Fisheries Albania, 2010). The graph below shows total aquaculture production in Albania according to FAO statistics: