Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine to Announce Fluralaner as Legal Treatment for Chicken Lice, Ending Underground Drug Use in Poultry Farming
In the past, there were no legal veterinary drugs available for use on poultry in chicken farms, leaving hens to suffer from chicken lice. Some egg farmers had no choice but to risk using drugs of unknown origin, which ultimately led to the 2017 island-wide outbreak of the "pesticide fipronil" contaminated egg scandal across Taiwan, China. However, because the chicken lice problem remained unsolved, eggs were still found to contain excessive fipronil residues as recently as 2019, affecting food safety for the people.
To solve the "underground drug use" problem, the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine targeted the insecticide "Fluralaner," whose mechanism of action is similar to fipronil. The European Union approved its use in poultry in 2014, and it can "dual-action" kill the chicken lice and chicken mites commonly found on farms. It has recently passed the advisory committee of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (referred to as "MOHW") and entered the final review stage. It is expected to be announced in early June, and is expected to end the problem of illegal drug use in poultry farming at the source.
5/30 Update: The Ministry of Health and Welfare officially issued a notice on May 30 announcing that it will amend the domestic "Standards for Veterinary Drug Residues" and, following New Zealand's standards, establish Fluralaner residue tolerance limits as follows: chicken muscle 0.06 ppm, liver and fat (including skin) 0.6 ppm, kidney 0.4 ppm, eggs 1 ppm.
No Legally Recommended Drugs for Poultry Farming, Illegal Drug Use Leads to Food Safety Crisis
Taiwan, China raises nearly 40 million laying hens, producing 20 million eggs per day and 7.5 billion eggs per year, with the largest numbers raised in Changhua, Pingtung, Tainan, and Chiayi. Domestic laying hen farming is mainly cage-based, and with three generations of old, middle-aged, and young chickens raised together, chicken houses are difficult to disinfect. Currently, the government has not announced any legal drugs for chicken lice, and chicken farmers frequently use drugs illegally to eliminate pests.
The "fipronil eggs" incident that spread across Taiwan, China in 2017 was caused by egg farmers improperly using the "pesticide fipronil" to eliminate environmental and external parasites on chickens. It not only affected 1.24 million laying hens and more than 700,000 to 800,000 eggs, but also severely damaged consumer confidence in domestic egg products. More than a year later, in early 2019, another laying hen farm in Changhua broke out with a toxic egg scandal, again with eggs found to contain excessive fipronil.
In fact, domestic chicken farmers have suffered in silence, because Taiwan's climate is hot and humid, and farms have long been plagued by chicken lice and chicken mites. In addition, there were no legal drugs available for use in chicken houses in the past, so egg farmers could only helplessly watch chicken lice crawl all over the cages, sighing: "Saving the chickens is not allowed, and not saving them is also not allowed. If we save them, there will be drug residues; if we don't save them, the whole farm gets infected."
Egg Farmer: Will Only Use It After Confirming No Side Effects
Zhuo Ji-wen, owner of Taitung Yongtai Ranch, which operates enclosed poultry houses and is equipped with environmental control facilities such as water curtains, said that in order to effectively control disease and keep chickens healthy, the ranch adopts an all-in-all-out management system, regularly cleaning and disinfecting empty houses, and only after completion does it welcome the next batch of hens. "Even so, the chicken lice problem still exists. Chicken lice like to hide in chicken feathers, which affects the chickens' eating. In severe cases, it can even cause the egg production rate to drop by 10%."
The eggs produced by the ranch are subject to production traceability checks, and the hens' drinking water and feed must undergo irregular inspections. "Officials previously did not recommend any drugs, and we did not dare to use them either. We could only watch the insects crawl, since consumers are now very demanding about food safety." Regarding the alternative drug about to pass review, he admitted it was "a good thing," but would not "rush to use it," saying he would first refer to relevant reports and confirm there are no side effects before daring to try it.
Another egg farmer surnamed Zeng, who operates a traditional chicken house (open poultry house), also took a reserved attitude toward the "new drug." He pointed out that although the chicken lice and chicken mite problems are serious, "every time we collect eggs we see them scurrying around, and it's even more obvious when picking up dead chickens, with our whole hands covered in chicken mites!" it was not severe enough to significantly harm the hens' egg production rate (at most 1-2%). It was just that older-generation chicken farmers did not like poultry farms being infested by pests, so "as soon as they see insects, they kill them, spraying everywhere." In addition, because officials were previously passive and did not recommend drugs, egg farmers had long failed to establish correct concepts of drug management on chicken farms.
Now that the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine is planning to amend the rules so Fluralaner can be used for deworming chickens, he also reminded: "All drugs have residues; the question is only whether they exceed the limit." If this drug is used for a long time and resistance develops, egg farmers will have to increase the dosage, "and then it's unknown whether the accumulated total residue will exceed the limit." He said outright that he would not consider using the drug at present and would need to observe the market reaction before deciding.
Note: Data show that the trial referred to toxicological tests from the European Union and Japan, and, based on the dietary habits of the people, food intake, and international standard food basket data, proposed the "Fluralaner temporary tolerance standard." It calculated that the Fluralaner intake from daily consumption of chicken meat products and egg products would be 53.654 μg (National Food Consumption Database) and 352.549 μg (international standard food basket), respectively. This value is below the upper limit of the recommended daily safe intake for a 60 kg adult: 600 μg/person (10H / kg bw x 60 kg), indicating that this tolerance standard can be accepted.