Concept

Roxarsone

Summary
Roxarsone is an organoarsenic compound that has been used in poultry production as a feed additive to increase weight gain and improve feed efficiency, and as a coccidiostat. As of June 2011, it was approved for chicken feed in the United States, Canada, Australia, and 12 other countries. The drug was also approved in the United States and elsewhere for use in pigs. Its use in the United States was voluntarily ended by the manufacturers in June 2011 and has been illegal since 2013. Its use was immediately suspended in Malaysia. It was banned in Canada in August 2011. In Australia, its use in chicken feed was discontinued in 2012. Roxarsone has been banned in the European Union since 1999. Roxarsone is a derivative of phenylarsonic acid (C6H5As(O)(OH)2). It was first reported in a 1923 British patent that described the nitration and diazotization of arsanilic acid. When blended with calcite powder, it is used in poultry feed premixes in some parts of the world. Where available, it can be purchased in 5%, 20% and 50% concentrations. Roxarsone was marketed as 3-Nitro by Zoetis, a former subsidiary of Pfizer now a publicly traded company. In 2006, approximately one million kilograms of roxarsone were produced in the U.S. Roxarsone is one of four arsenical animal drugs that had been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in poultry and swine, along with nitarsone, arsanilic acid, and carbarsone. In September 2013, the FDA announced that Zoetis and Fleming Laboratories would voluntarily withdraw current roxarsone, arsanilic acid, and carbarsone approvals, leaving only nitarsone approvals in place. In 2015, the FDA withdrew the approval of using nitarsone in animal feeds. The ban came into effect at the end of 2015. Roxarsone has attracted attention as a source of arsenic contamination of poultry and other foods. In June 2011, the manufacturers suspended sales of roxarsone in the U.S. and Canada in response to a study by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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