Arsenic in Chicken Feed - and Eggs

Unless feed containing the medication/drug/chemical (4.00 / 2)

is allowed for use in food animals with out a withdrawl period, I doubt you'll find arsenic in table eggs.

The family probably didn't know the difference between medicated feed and non-medicated feed or they didn't read the label. Feed bags have a tag on them that lists the nutritional info as well as ingredients. If there is any medication in the feed it will be listed on the bag tag, along with cautions about feeding to animals used for food, and withdrawl times if applicable. Same goes for any meds you may buy at the feed store.

I'll be starting all the layers on their annual coccidia and deworming routine this week to coincide with their molt. The treatment will take 10 days or so, with an additional 10 day withdrawl after treatment. During that time I will be unable to sell eggs due to the potential for drug residue. It's going to kill me to destroy all those eggs, it'll be between 200-300 eggs, but you can't feed tainted/adulterated eggs.

Drugs have to be used very carefully. For instance, Monensin (aka Rumensin) is a common coccidiostat for use on goats. It's very safe, and works wonderfully and they tollerate it very well. However, if one of the horses got even a very small handfull that same substance would kill them quickly. I can't use anything on the goats or horses that isn't fed directly to them and under supervision because the chickens have access to those areas where I feed the livestock their regular ration. I don't know how much of that drug might get into a chicken and then be passed on to their eggs. So I either use an oral drench on the goats and horses, or I feed a dry ration with medication when I have to do that, and only one animal at a time, and while I'm standing right there watching.

Even though animals like broiler chickens may be fed feed treated with a coccidiostat, there is a mandatory withdrawl period during which the drug is supposed to clear from the meat and/or fat. However, if you're using compost made from chicken manure, or cow manure, or even horse manure for that matter, I don't know how the drugs break down during the composting process or how much of the drugs would be passed through the animal's body into the urine and manure.

It's one reason why, while I would love to have access to tons of free composted horse manure from the boarding  stables around here, I stay with manure I harvest from my own livestock. That way I know exactly what's been fed to them, and what to expect in the manure. Even with horses at boarding stables, you have people who deworm annually, bi-annually (my schedule), quarterly, monthly and some may use a feed through dewormer that is administered daily. It's just too big a risk. If I was growing bedding plants, or trees or something else that wasn't going to be eaten things would be different.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Mon Jul 05, 2010 at 20:46:26 PM UTC

Joanne (4.00 / 1)

Careful and knowledgeable farmers like you are wonderful. Truly, I hope that everyone else out there is as conscientious as you are. But I would like to test that chicken manure I've got to see what's in it. The EU outlawed arsenicals in chicken feed years ago and they are getting along fine without it.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Mon Jul 05, 2010 at 21:59:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Oh I wouldn't doubt that arsenicals are in the manure (4.00 / 1)

unless they break down in the composting process. The manure is probably in whole or in part from broiler houses, and if those birds were fed feed with arsenicals in it, much of the drug probably passed right on through the birds and into the manure.  

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Mon Jul 05, 2010 at 22:23:54 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Here's some more info on roxarsone and chickens (4.00 / 1)

The little info I've looked at regarding roxarsone leads me to believe that this chemical is not to be fed to layers in egg production. It's primarily used in broiler chickens for which the withdrawl period is 5 days prior to slaughter.

Here's some links -
from Fowl Facts forum about roxarsone as well as amprolium and other drugs
DEGRADATION OF ROXARSONE IN POULTRY LITTER - Considering this info, I definately won't be using composted poultry litter unless it's from my own flock.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Mon Jul 05, 2010 at 22:52:31 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The thing that puzzles me is how did the family get ahold of roxarsone containing feed (4.00 / 1)

for their home layers? I'm assuming they got it from their local feed store and didn't know enough to look at the bag tag, which should have declared the drug and had a caution to not feed to laying birds as well as the withdrawl period for meat birds. If they bought broiler feed, such as a grower feed, it shouldn't have been fed to layers anyway as the protein content would probably be high for layers. The unmedicated grower feed I have here is 28% protein, the layer ration is 16%.


Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Mon Jul 05, 2010 at 22:57:33 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

herbicide in horse manure (0.00 / 0)

dow milestone and forefront
aminopralid, clopyralid
killed thousands of gardens
thru contaminated straw manure and compost

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by: zardoz86 @ Thu Jul 08, 2010 at 04:42:42 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yeah (0.00 / 0)

they had a huge problem in England one year with herbicides in hay. Passed right through the horses into the manure which was composted and then applied to gardens. The stuff didn't break down and people's gardens failed that year. Apparently herbicides had been applied to areas along roads which were then mowed for hay fed to horses. I had no idea they used the grasses along the roads like this in some areas.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Thu Jul 08, 2010 at 05:14:09 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Jill- I believe that arsenicals are outlawed in (4.00 / 3)

layer chicken feed, but are routinely fed in the rations of broiler chickens.  Organic regulations of course do not allow arsenicals.  If your litter is coming from a conventional broiler operation, there would absolutely be arsenic in the litter.  Generally, the concentration is low enough that there would only be a problem if there are repeated applications of very high rates of litter on the same land.

This is a great reference for more info:
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub...

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by: moreaxe @ Mon Jul 05, 2010 at 22:56:19 PM UTC

Awesome, thanks (4.00 / 2)

So apparently that's what this family did wrong. And it shows the dangers of putting arsenicals in ANY chicken feed.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Mon Jul 05, 2010 at 23:33:16 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

They may have fed broiler feed to the layers (4.00 / 1)

however, having read the article now, the feed store says that there isn't any arsenicals in its feed (I forget whether or if they were differentiating between layer feed or broiler grower/finisher feed). The family said there was no declaration of ingredients on the feed, which I would think would be strictly illegal. I don't think you can sell any feed (excluding baled forage/fodder) without a label that states ingredients including any medications. I don't know about the garaunteed annalysis, but I've never bought feed that didn't have those. Even when I buy whole grain feed such as cracked corn, wet or dry COB (corn, oats and barley), scratch grains (cracked corn and wheat), or any milled feed such as layer pellets, all purpose livestock feeds, etc. they all have bag tags with a list of ingredients, any meds, and an annalysis showing min and/or max protein, fats, various vitamins and minerals, etc.

Maybe in Utah they don't require that kind of labeling for feeds produced for intrastate sales, but I'd be astounded if that's the case.

Normal people scare me.... But not as much as I scare them.

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by: JoanneRigutto @ Mon Jul 05, 2010 at 23:52:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Arsenic in feed for industrial chickens (4.00 / 1)

On the subject of arsenic in industrial chicken feed:  a short paper in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives by researchers from Johns Hopkins University summarized the problems created by the use of arsenic in chicken feed.  They write: "The U.S. Geological Survey has calculated, based on arsenic concentrations measured in poultry waste, that between 250,000 and 350,000 kg arsenic is annually applied to land in the United States (Rutherford et al. 2003). Although roxarsone, the predominant arsenical added to poultry feed, is an organoarsenical, there is strong evidence that the drug is converted into inorganic arsenic within the chicken (Arai et al. 2003) and is also rapidly transformed into inorganic arsenic in wastes and soils (Garbarino et al. 2003). Elevations in soil arsenic levels have been reported in fields where poultry wastes have been applied (Gupta and Charles 1999). This form of arsenic is readily leachable and may therefore move into groundwater (Rutherford et al. 2003)."

The full paper (which lists references cited above in full, of course) is available for free at the journal's website.

The blog of the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University has a few posts about the environmental hazards of feeding arsenic to chickens.

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by: mental_masala @ Tue Jul 06, 2010 at 21:58:42 PM UTC