Put an end to the nightmare of underground medication in chicken farming! The Bureau of Prevention and Inspection will announce that the insecticide "Ake lice" can legally kill chicken lice.

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In the past, chicken farms did not have animal drugs that could be legally used on poultry, causing hens to suffer from chicken lice, and some egg farmers had to take the risk of using unknown drugs, which finally led to the outbreak of "pesticide Finney" contaminated eggs in Taiwan in 2017. However, due to the problem of chicken lice, there is still no solution. Until this year (2019), there are still eggs with excessive residues of fenpronil, which affects the food safety of Chinese people.

In order to solve the problem of "underground drug use", the Bureau of Prevention and Inspection currently targets the insecticide "Fluralaner"(ike lice), whose mechanism of action is similar to that of Fenpronil. The EU has been opened to poultry use in 2014. It can "double effect" kill common chicken lice and chicken mites in pastures. Recently, it has passed the consultation meeting of the Food and Drug Administration and entered the final review stage. It is expected to be announced in early June. It is expected to end the illegal drug use problem in chickens from the source.

There is no legal recommended drug for chicken breeding, and illegal drug use leads to food safety crisis.

Nearly 40 million laying hens are raised in Taiwan, with a daily production of 20 million eggs and an annual production of 7.5 billion eggs. Changhua, Pingtung, Tainan and Chiayi raise the most. In Taiwan, laying hens are mainly raised in cages. In addition, old and middle-aged chickens are mixed for three generations. It is not easy to disinfect chicken houses. At present, the government has not announced any legal use of chicken lice. Chicken farmers often use illegal drugs to kill insects.

In 2017, the "Finney eggs" that were burned throughout Taiwan were caused by the improper use of "pesticide Finney" by egg farmers to drive out environmental and chicken ectoparasites, which not only caused 1.24 million laying hens and more than 700,000 - 800,000 eggs to be affected, but also severely damaged consumers 'confidence in domestic eggs; more than a year later, another layer farm in Changhua broke out at the beginning of this year, and the same eggs were detected as Finney.

In fact, chicken farmers in Taiwan are suffering unspeakably, because Taiwan's climate is hot and humid, pastures have long been infested by chicken lice and mites, and in the past there was no legal medicine to be used in chicken coops. Egg farmers can only helplessly watch chicken lice crawling all over the chicken cages and sigh: "Save the chickens, save them, save them, drug residues, do not save them, the whole infection."

(Photography/Lin Peijun)

Egg farmers: dare to use it only after confirming that there are no side effects

Chuo Chi-wen, owner of Wing Tai Ranch in Taitung, which runs its own enclosed poultry house with water curtains and other environmental control facilities, says that in order to effectively control disease and the health of chickens, the farm adopts unified management, regularly cleaning and disinfecting the empty house, and only after completion will the next batch of hens enter."However, there is still a problem with chicken lice.(Chicken lice) like to hide in chicken feathers, which will affect the chicken's eating. In serious cases, the egg production rate will even drop by 10%."

The eggs produced in the pasture are subject to production records, and the hens 'drinking water and feed have to undergo irregular inspections."The official did not recommend drugs before, so we dare not use them. We can only watch the insects crawling. After all, consumers are very demanding for food safety now." For alternative drugs to pass the review, he admitted that "it is a good thing", but will not "rush to use", said he would first refer to relevant reports, confirm that there are no side effects, dare to try.

Another egg farmer surnamed Zeng, a traditional chicken house (open poultry house), also has reservations about "new drugs". He pointed out that although the problem of chicken lice and chicken mites is serious,"every time you pick up eggs, you see them scurrying around, and it's more obvious when you pick up dead chickens. The whole hand is covered with chicken moss!" However, it will not seriously damage the laying rate of hens (at most 1-2%), but the older generation of chicken farmers do not like chicken farms to be infested by pests, so they "kill insects as soon as they see them and spray everywhere". In addition, in the past, the government was passive and did not recommend drugs, so egg farmers failed to establish correct management concepts for chicken farms for a long time.

Now the Bureau of Inspection and Prevention is developing a revised Fluralaner that can be used for chicken pest control. In this regard, he also reminds that "any drug has residues, but there is a problem of whether it exceeds the standard." If the drug is used for a long time and resistance occurs, egg farmers will have to increase the dosage."I don't know if the total residue after accumulation will exceed the standard." He bluntly said that he would not consider medication at present and would have to observe the market reaction before making a decision.

Note: The data show that this test refers to the toxicology tests of EU and Japan, and based on the dietary habits, food intake and international standard food basket data of Chinese people, the proposed "tentative allowable level of Fluralaner" is calculated. The daily intake of fluralaner from chicken products and egg products is 53.654μg respectively.(National Food Consumption Database) and 352.549 (International Standard Food Basket), which is below the recommended upper limit of safe daily intake for 60kg adults of 600μg/ person (10H / kg bw x 60 kg), indicating that this tolerance is acceptable.

(2019) Pesticide Finney Contaminated 460,000 Eggs! Changhua Shunhong Ranch was found to exceed the standard and sold to Shuangbei and affected breakfast operators.

(2018) Why does the pesticide Fenpronil remain in eggs? Environmental medicine used to spray chicken coops?

(2017) Pesticide Residue Standards for Finney Eggs, the process of formulation is full of storms, risk communication is worse?