Human poison in chicken feed
According to Gwen Cox who raised broiler chickens for Pilgrim’s Pride
from 2001 to 2004, she was forced to use poultry feed provided by the
company. She remembers a few incidents during which she felt nauseous
and with bouts of cough while working with the feed. After these
episodes she decided to check the label listing the ingredients and
noticed it contained roxarsone, an organic arsenic compound. Very
concerned about her health and her chickens, she inquired at Pilgrim’s
Pride the reason for it and was told to mind her own business for
roxarsone is “a microbe inhibitor and is proven to be safe in the
quantity used in the feed.” Roxarsone has been found to prevent the
growth of microscopic intestinal parasites called coccidia that
frequently infect livestock, and it provides the added bonus of bigger
chickens.
Unfortunately over 70% of chickens in the US are fed roxarsone and
the consequences might be disastrous since once ingested by the chickens
it remains distributed throughout the animal’s tissues (later eaten by
consumers) and the rest is excreted unchanged in poultry waste.
The environmental risks are in that 90% of this manure is later
converted into fertilizer that can contaminate crops, lakes, rivers, and
even drinking water. According to the Environmental Protection Agency,
which regulates drinking water, arsenic is a class A carcinogen, meaning
that data have definitively shown arsenic to cause cancer.
To read the full article please visit
http://scienceline.org/2006/09/20/env-wenner-arsenic/
Your question and comments are welcome
