On April 17, the Press Conference for Issuing the New Veterinary Drug Certificate of Malachite Green Alternative Pharmaceutical Preparation (Metalaxyl) was held in Multimedia Information Center 104. Present at the press conference were Li Jiale, Vice President of SHOU; Peng Jianzong, Chairman of the Board of Changsha Baite Bioscience Research Institute Co., Ltd.; Gu Caidi, representative of aquaculture farmers; heads of related departments and colleges; members of the research team; faculty and student representatives; and more than 20 media. The conference was chaired by Yang Zhengyong, Director of the office of science and technology.

Li Jiale, Vice President of SHOU, welcomed the guests on behalf of SHOU, and expressed his congratulation on the approval of malachite green alternative pharmaceutical preparation (Metalaxyl) as a category-IV new veterinary drug. He introduced the use status of malachite green, pointed out the urgency of food security and foreign trade problems caused by malachite green, and emphasized the timeliness of the development of Metalaxyl as a new veterinary drug. He fully affirmed the positive significance of this pressure conference for improving the confidence of practitioners in the aquatic product industry, elevating the aquiculture level of the industry and enhancing food security.

According to the introduction by Professor Yang Xianle, manager of the project R&D team, in the past 15 years since the issue of the decree banning the use of malachite green, due to the lack of an ideal alternative drug for malachite green both at home and abroad, the food security and foreign trade problems of detection of malachite green in aquatic products have surfaced from time to time. To get rid of this awkward situation, the team led by Professor Yang has established a cooperation relationship with Changsha Baite, and they have eventually selected Metalaxyl according to a “one in a million” rigorous standard, a saprolegniasis-resistant active substance that can totally replace malachite green in terms of safety, efficacy, price, and so forth. Since then, after 16 pharmacological experiments, seven clinical trials, eight years of productive verification and application and multiple rounds of new drug review in three years, success has ultimately been achieved in obtaining “Metalaxyl”, the first malachite green alternative pharmaceutical preparation specifically used for saprolegniasis treatment in the world. Since the launching of productive verification tests in 2008, more than 20 main aquiculture objects of China have been verified thousands of times at some 1,000 test sites distributed in 25 provinces (and cities) nationwide, and the cumulative test area has exceeded 200,000 mu. Ideal results have been obtained by these tests.The preventive and therapeutic effects of Metalaxyl pharmaceutical preparation against saprolegniasis can reach as high as 70% and 60% respectively; it can also reduce the cumulative direct economic loss and indirect economic loss caused by saprolegniasis by above 430 million RMB and 540 million RMB. No potential safety hazard due to the use of Metalaxyl has been observed in the past eight years.

This conference was the first press conference held since the issue of the category-IV new veterinary drug certificate of Metalaxyl by the Ministry of Agriculture in March. It is believed that, driven by the holding of this press conference, Metalaxyl as a new veterinary drug will be more widely recognized by practitioners in the aquatic product industry, and that it will contribute its share to the development of China’s aquatic product cause.