Estimation of the risk of fipronil ingestion through the consumption of contaminated table eggs for the Italian consumer

Abstract

Fipronil is an insecticide which is not approved for use in any food‑producing animal species in the European Union (EU). However, the inappropriate use of fipronil in mites’ disinfestation products utilized in poultry farms in the Netherlands and other EU countries in 2017, led to the detection of residues of this pesticide in eggs across Europe. In Italy, a national monitoring plan was established to verify the possible misuse of fipronil in Italian laying hens. Out of 577 sampled farms, 23 eggs resulted contaminated (4.0%; 95% CI: 2.7%‑5.9%). A higher prevalence of contamination was observed in flocks kept on cage (8.7%; 95% CI: 6.0% ‑ 12.4%) than on ground (1.6%; 95% CI: 0.7% ‑3.7%); Chi‑square = 16.1; P < 0.001). The results allowed developing a stochastic model for estimating the risk of fipronil ingestion through the consumption of contaminated table eggs for the Italian consumer. The probability that an individual ingests a dose of fipronil greater than the acute reference dose (ARfD, equal to 0.009 mg/kg body weight) was assessed as very low, ranging from values very close to 0 in people with more than 10 years of age and 0.0007 in infants less than 3 years.

Keywords

• Fipronil
• pesticides
• RASFF
• risk estimation
• stochastic model
• table eggs