Incubating eggs from pullets wormed with Valbazen

[waddles99]

Can anyone tell me if it is safe to incubate eggs laid by pullets recently wormed with Valbazen? I know that it is not technically approved for use in poultry, but has been shown to be very effective as a broad spectrum wormer for poultry. So I decided to worm my flock now before spring just to be safe. They have just started laying within the past couple days, and being that now is a good time to start hatching, I would like to start. I know the widely accepted withdrawal period for egg consumption is 2 weeks(14 days), but I was wondering if the same period applied to hatching out chicks, and if hatching eggs laid by hens wormed with valbazen less than 2 weeks ago would cause any deformities, death, low hatch rate, or any other negative side effect. I know wazine can cause deformities or death in chicks hatched out of eggs laid within the withdrawal period. But I was just wondering about valbazen. I can't imagine that the dosage in each egg would be enough to harm a chick in any way, especially since it is safe for adults and given in such small quantities. But I figured I would ask. Better safe than sorry. I don't want to waste my time hatching out dead or deformed chicks.

 

[silkie1472]

If you have just worked your chickens, do not attempt to hatch eggs. I would not eat them for at least two weeks, and I would double the time for hatching. Personally, I would wait about five weeks. If valbazen residue is in the eggs, the eggs will most likely not develop, and if they do, the chicks will more than likely have deformities and die. I have experienced this. The chicks that were from unwormed hens hatched fine, but the ones from wormed hens either did not hatch, hatched without a beak, without eyes, without feet, and even without a scalp, exposing the chicks brains. They died immediately after hatching.

 

[silkie1472]

This goes for valbazen and wazine. I use Valbazen for possible signs of worms, and wazine if I know there are worms.

 

[silkie1472]

I meant to say wormed in my first sentence*

 

[waddles99]

Really? I asked this same question in the APA group and got 5 people saying it was safe.

 

[silkie1472]

I am just telling you information based on my experience. I think of it like this: If we cannot eat the eggs because of the residue inside of them, how would it be safe for chicks to eat the same stuff while developing. With my experience, my chicks hatched with many deformities, but that may have just been my experience. The eggs were incubated a week and a half after treatment. After about 7 weeks, I hatched more eggs from all of my chickens, and they all hatched healthy. If you really want to hatch them, go ahead. They may all hatch healthy, but there is still a chance that they won't.

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Whats another two weeks anyway? I would wait it out..



Gary

 

[waddles99]

I am just telling you information based on my experience. I think of it like this: If we cannot eat the eggs because of the residue inside of them, how would it be safe for chicks to eat the same stuff while developing. With my experience, my chicks hatched with many deformities, but that may have just been my experience. The eggs were incubated a week and a half after treatment. After about 7 weeks, I hatched more eggs from all of my chickens, and they all hatched healthy. If you really want to hatch them, go ahead. They may all hatch healthy, but there is still a chance that they won't.

Yes, I know, I'm not disagreeing with you or anything, just confused that I got such a resounding OK from everyone over there. The reason we cannot eat the eggs because the residue will build up in our systems, and cause any treatment of valbazen for humans to be less effective. It is not poisonous or anything for humans. It is given to humans for the control of tapeworms. I don't want to be hatching out a bunch of deformed birds. Certainly not.

 

[waddles99]

Whats another two weeks anyway? I would wait it out..



Gary

24 days.

 

[vasher]

I've been looking into this a bit (mostly for fenbendazole), which is similar to albendazole (Valbazen) but a bit more specific in activity . Most of the info is related to mammalian development. A few things I've found, for what they're worth.

http://www.safe-guardcattle.com/uploads/4_S519_30913_01_Benzimidazole_SafeGuardDetailer_5_8_13.pdf./ (Industry pamphlet, but I don't have any info to disagree with this). This states that Valbazen/albendazole should not be used for cattle early in pregnancy as it can cause defects. I don't know how it would present in poultry.



Fenbendazole allowed for use in pregnant/laying/lactating animals in EU:

http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB...Information/veterinary/002008/WC500119482.pdf


And from Intervet's application to have fenbendazole allowed for use in poultry in the US (at the bottom is the reproductive toxicity study, ~200 chickens used). No differences found in hatched chickes from fendazole/no fenbendazole groups after 3 weeks of dewormer.

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Animal...lDrugProducts/FOIADrugSummaries/UCM471258.pdf