Pesticide-laden cattle feed contaminating milk: Study

Vishav Bharti
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 11

Your cup of milk may contain pesticides, reveals a study by experts from Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana. 

To study the co-relation between pesticide contamination of feed supplied to dairy cattle and pesticide residue in milk, the experts collected samples of animal concentrate feed, fodder, water and milk from 55 dairy farms in Punjab. They found the samples contaminated with organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), synthetic pyrethroids (SPs) and organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) residues.

The study, published in the ‘Journal of Animal and Feed Sciences’, concluded that feed containing pesticides was primarily responsible for transfer of pesticides to milk.

Poor management practices at the dairy farms while using pesticides were also to blame. “It is absolutely necessary that milk and feed and fodder for the cattle are monitored regularly,” stressed Dr JS Bedi, the lead author.

Among the residues detected in milk, the main contaminant was organophosphate pesticide chlorpyrifos. It was found in six of the 55 (10.1%) samples, followed by cypermethrin, a synthetic pyrethroid used as an insecticide (9.1%), insecticide endosulfan sulphate (7.3%), DDE (5.4%), ethion (5.4%), lindane (3.6%), fenvalerate (3.6%) and malathion (1.85%).

However, the mean contamination level was lower than the maximum residue limits  (MRL) fixed by the World Health Organisation and the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India.

Two milk samples exceeded the MRL for lindane and three for DDT and chlorpyrifos. Also, two samples violated the MRL  for endosulphan sulphate residue. 

At 12 farm sites, residues of pesticides were detected in both animal concentrate feed and milk samples, while at other farms these were detected either in feed or milk.