"At a Yangon fish farm one recent morning, Myanmar Now watched as chicken faeces fell from coops suspended above a pond, down into the water, where a scrum of fish formed to snack on it. The practice, known as integrated animal-fish farming, pairs fish ponds with other livestock - often chicken, but also pigs and geese - grown in close proximity, with the animal waste used to generate fish feed. Advocates say the method is economical, and that the animal waste acts only to fertilize the phytoplankton in the ponds that fish feed on. They deny the fish eat the animal waste itself. But Myanmar Now saw fish feasting on such waste at six separate integrated farms in Yangon’s Hlegu and Mingalardon township during trips in January and February. Public health experts say the practice encourages the spread of harmful bacteria and that toxic metals found in chicken feed accumulate in fish, from both the chicken waste and from chicken feed that spills into ponds from the coops above. Trade groups also worry about the practice. It’s banned in much of the developed world, and they say Myanmar’s continued use of integrated farms makes Myanmar a pariah in international seafood markets..."