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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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Poultry farming

Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to produce meat or eggs for food. Poultry – mostly chickens – are farmed in great numbers. More than 60 billion chickens are killed for consumption annually. Chickens raised for eggs are known as layers, while chickens raised for meat are called broilers. In the United States, the national organization overseeing poultry production is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Organoarsenic chemistry

Organoarsenic chemistry is the chemistry of compounds containing a chemical bond between arsenic and carbon. A few organoarsenic compounds, also called "organoarsenicals," are produced industrially with uses as insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides. In general these applications are declining in step with growing concerns about their impact on the environment and human health. The parent compounds are arsane and arsenic acid. Despite their toxicity, organoarsenic biomolecules are well known.

Nitarsone

Nitarsone is an organoarsenic compound that is used in poultry production as a feed additive to increase weight gain, improve feed efficiency, and prevent histomoniasis (blackhead disease). It is marketed as Histostat by Zoetis. Nitarsone once was one of four arsenical food-animal drugs—along with roxarsone, arsanilic acid, and carbarsone—approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in feeding poultry. However, following the suspension of sales of roxarsone in the United States in 2011, nitarsone was thought to be the only arsenical animal drug actually marketed in the U.

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Experiments were conducted to quantify Fe(II) sorption onto goethite in the absence and presence of As(III). The experimental data obtained in single-sorbate experiments were modeled using a diffuse double layer surface complexation model and used to predi ...

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Solar oxidation and removal of arsenic at circumneutral pH in iron containing waters

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An estimated 30-50 million people in Bangladesh consume groundwater with arsenic contents far above accepted limits. A better understanding of arsenic redox kinetics and simple water treatment procedures are urgently needed. We have studied thermal and pho ...

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Elevated arsenic concentrations in Crowley Lake derive from upstream geothermal inputs. We examined the water column of Crowley Lake under stratified and unstratified conditions, seeking evidence for algal uptake and transformation of arsenic and its depos ...

2000