Chlorpyrifos residual behaviors in field crops and transfers during duck pellet feed processing.

Chlorpyrifos is a widely used organophosphorus pesticide in agricultural crops (including food) and animal feeds in China, resulting in heavy contamination. Many studies have focused on the food-processing effects on chlorpyrifos removal, but sufficient information is not observed for feed-processing steps. Here, chlorpyrifos residual behaviors in field crops and its transfers in duck pellet feed-processing steps were evaluated. In field trials, the highest residues for rice grain, shelled corn, and soybean seed were 12.0, 0.605, and 0.220 mg/kg, respectively. Residues of all rice grain and about half of shelled corn exceeded the maximum residue limits (MRLs) of China, and five soybean seeds exceeded the MRL of China. Chlorpyrifos residue was reduced 38.2% in brown rice after the raw rice grain was hulled. The residue in bran increased 71.2% after milling from brown rice. During the squashing step, the residue reduced 73.8% in soybean meal. The residues reduced significantly (23.7-36.8%) during the process of granulating for rice, maize, and soybean products. Comparatively, the grinding process showed only limited influence on chlorpyrifos removal (<10%). The residues of duck pellet feeds produced from highly contaminated raw materials of this study were 1.01 mg/kg (maize-soybean feed) and 3.20 mg/kg (rice-soybean feed), which were much higher than the generally accepted value (>0.1 mg/kg) for animal feeding. Chlorpyrifos residues were removed significantly by processing steps of pellet feeds, but the residue of raw materials was the determining factor for the safety of duck feeding.