Fipronil-Tainted Eggs Spread Across Europe; Taiwan's Council of Agriculture Says the Pesticide Is Banned for Poultry but Not Monitored

General News Jan 1, 1970By Emily Carter 0 views

Text by Upstream-Downstream reporters Cheng Chieh-yi and Lai Yu-wei

The European Union has recently been hit by a tainted-egg scandal. On July 31, the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) stated that some eggs contained residues of the pesticide fipronil at levels too high to be safe for human health, advised the public not to eat them, and required supermarkets and other retailers to take them off the shelves. It has also sealed about 180 poultry farms, destroyed the problem eggs, and is inspecting another 138 poultry farms.

Belgium, which was the first to raise the alarm on July 20 through the EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), has also stopped selling the tainted eggs.

The Dutch tainted eggs contaminated with the insecticide fipronil have not only spread to Germany and Belgium; because some egg farmers also supply the United Kingdom, France and Poland, the scandal may continue to escalate.

Every egg in the EU has a code (this is an egg produced in Italy, not one of the eggs involved in the incident. Photo / Cheng Chieh-yi)

Fipronil pesticide is banned for use on laying hens; long-term intake harms health, especially in young children

Fipronil insecticide, produced by the German agrochemical giant BASF, is commonly used to control fleas and lice on animals. However, in the EU it is prohibited for use on livestock raised for human consumption; in other words, it cannot be used on laying hens either.

According to the classification of the World Health Organization (WHO), fipronil is "moderately toxic" to humans. However, heavy exposure can endanger kidney, liver and thyroid function; long-term intake is also harmful to health. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority stated: "It is important not to let young children eat eggs contaminated with fipronil."

To save bees, the EU announced in 2013 a temporary ban on the use of three neonicotinoid pesticides - imidacloprid and clothianidin produced by Bayer, and thiamethoxam from Syngenta - on flowering plants, and also banned the systemic pesticide fipronil (Fipronil).

Dutch poultry association: fipronil may have been illegally added to boost efficacy

Current information indicates that the problem eggs came from poultry farms coordinated by the company Chick Friend. It is very likely that fipronil was used to treat red mites on the chickens, and that these veterinary drugs were supplied by a Belgian pharmaceutical company.

Erik Hubers, a member of the Dutch poultry association, speculated: "To enhance the efficacy, it is very likely that an illegal drug (fipronil) was mixed into a legal agent."

As for whether the Belgian pharmaceutical company was at fault, or whether Chick Friend knew and still supplied the agent to downstream poultry farms, investigative authorities in the Netherlands and Belgium are still clarifying the matter.

Taiwan's Council of Agriculture: fipronil may not be used in domestic poultry farming, but no testing has been done either

On hearing that European eggs had been contaminated with the insecticide "fipronil," Hung Chin-shih, of the poultry production section of the Council of Agriculture's Department of Animal Industry and head of the laying hen group of the poultry association, said, "I have never heard of fipronil being used on laying hens." Shih Tai-hua, deputy director-general of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, also stated, "At present, fipronil may not be used on domestic poultry or livestock; this insecticide is currently limited to treating parasites in cats and dogs."

That being so, what veterinary drugs are commonly used in Taiwan to remove external parasites from chickens? "At present there is no approved veterinary drug in Taiwan for external parasites of poultry," said Shih Tai-hua. Because laying hens in Taiwan are raised in elevated systems, unlike pasture-based farming in Europe, external parasite problems are less serious, and the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine is now also asking laying hen producers about the current state of the industry.

Taiwanese officials and chicken farmers have repeatedly stressed that domestic chickens are not treated with fipronil for parasites, but has any testing or monitoring been carried out for this insecticide? The poultry production section of the Department of Animal Industry said that, as far as it understood, no testing for fipronil is currently carried out in Taiwan either; Shih Tai-hua also said that because fipronil is not an approved drug for poultry or livestock, it has not been specially monitored.

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Fipronil-Tainted Eggs Spread Across Europe; Taiwan's Council of Agriculture Says the Pesticide Is Banned for Poultry but Not Monitored

Fipronil pesticide is banned for use on laying hens; long-term intake harms health, especially in young children

Dutch poultry association: fipronil may have been illegally added to boost efficacy

Taiwan's Council of Agriculture: fipronil may not be used in domestic poultry farming, but no testing has been done either

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