On "arsenic theory" caused by a large number of dead pigs in Huangpu River

Introduction: since the discovery of a large number of dead pigs in Huangpu River, the causes of the large number of dead pigs in Jiaxing are still uncertain Recently, it has been widely spread on the Internet that the cause of pig death is "arsenic theory": according to pig farmers, KSD has a preparation called organic arsenic, which is arsenic When it is used in pig feed additives such as April fertilizer, it can promote the development of pig gonads and the red and bright fur, and improve the selling style is conducive to a good price However, the side effect is that the accumulation of organic arsenic in pigs will be partially decomposed into inorganic arsenic, which will significantly increase the probability of visceral corrosion and mass death of pigs after four or five months of feeding Therefore, it is generally used three or four months before the preparation for marketing, and pigs are slaughtered before the negative and positive effects come out, avoiding the risk of organic arsenic However, at the end of the year, Jiaxing saw that inflation was going to rise, so it quickly braked hard to ban state-owned enterprises and government agencies from placing banquet seats for the new year, resulting in the sudden cancellation of a large number of banquet seats, and correspondingly, the meat used for the banquet was significantly lower than expected Pig farmers have been fed April fat and pigs ready to be slaughtered are forced to continue to be raised in the pens But the organic arsenic has been used, and the negative effect of killing will not come out at once, but it has not been sold for a month or two The side effect of organic arsenic comes up, and pigs have rotted to death The cause of death can't be seen, and they don't dare to sell such dead pork in the market The farmers have to break their teeth, swallow them and throw them into the river It is expected that there are too many pig farmers who throw organic arsenic in this way, and the influence of banning banquet at the end of the year is too common Once everyone throws it into the river, the pig carcasses march in the Huangpu River, which is discovered by the media This passage of KSD is well spoken, but there are some common sense mistakes and doubts For example, KSD (1) simply links organic arsenic with arsenic, which deliberately confuses the public Arsenic is inorganic arsenic (arsenic trioxide), while organic arsenic is used as pig feed additive The trivalent arsenic in inorganic arsenic is highly toxic, the pentavalent arsenic is less toxic, the organic arsenic (also referred to as arsenic) is less toxic, and the simple arsenic is more non-toxic In addition, arsenic is a metalloid element, and some reports call it a heavy metal, which is not appropriate Nearly 80-90% of the organic arsenic in pigs ingested by KSD (2) is rapidly discharged from pigs in its original form It is said that "the accumulation of organic arsenic in pigs will be partially decomposed into inorganic arsenic" Although I can't prove that this statement is wrong now, it's difficult to simply agree with the occurrence of this reaction Once there was a saying that if seafood and vitamin C were to be eaten together, the pentavalent arsenic in seafood would be converted into trivalent arsenic, which would be extremely toxic and cause people to die suddenly Later, some people proved this saying wrong by experiments, and pointed out that: in the laboratory, vitamin C may turn pentavalent arsenic into trivalent arsenic, which is very toxic, but it is not easy in diet; KSD (3) if the prohibition of state-owned enterprises and government agencies from placing banquet for the Spring Festival leads to the occurrence of toxic reactions, why does this toxic reaction only appear in Jiaxing, while there are few reports in other parts of the country? If this is a common strategy to increase production of pigs, Jiaxing will not be the only one to adopt it In fact, it is not an invention of our country to add arsenic preparation to feed The US FDA first allowed organoarsenic preparation to be used in chicken feed in 1964 In 1983, it was officially approved as a growth promoting agent for pigs and chickens In 1996, China's Ministry of Agriculture approved the use of arsenic preparation According to some studies, arsenic is an essential trace element for animals, which has many important physiological functions Experiments show that the growth of arsenic deficiency slows down and damages the reproductive performance However, this point has been questioned It is not the micronutrient that must be supplemented by livestock and poultry, nor the type of micronutrient in the use specification of feed drug additives The Arsenic Preparation feed additives, represented by arsanic acid and roxarsone, are added to the diet of livestock and poultry for the commercial purpose of promoting growth and improving the appearance of livestock and poultry Organic arsenic preparation has the following functions in pig and chicken production: improving feed utilization; similar to insect repellents and antibiotics; making poultry skin ruddy, hair bright and meat delicious; cooperating with some vitamins At present, there is no definite evidence for KSD to prove that poultry and pigs fed with organic arsenic containing feed will cause harm to human body Although arsenic preparation is very easy to be absorbed by human and animals, its retention rate is very low, generally only about 5% Most of the arsenic preparations that are not absorbed directly enter the environment with feces All kinds of arsenide will increase the content of arsenic in soil and water, which will cause great potential harm to the environment, which is worthy of our attention According to reports, if a 10000 head pig farm continuously uses arsenic containing feed for 5-8 years, it may discharge nearly 1 ton of arsenic to the surrounding area of the pig farm Within 10 years, the arsenic content of sweet potatoes produced in the field will all exceed the national food hygiene standard According to another report, in 42 days, each broiler will discharge 150 milligrams of roxarsone to the surrounding environment in a long term If a farm raises 200 million broilers every year, more than 8 tons of arsenic will be discharged to the environment every year Under the action of soil microorganism, these organic arsenic may be transformed into inorganic arsenic, which will further pollute crops and groundwater, and finally harm human health.