The Daily Morning Voice Online Desk: There is no public health risk in the consumption of broiler chicken, Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque said today. The presence of antibiotics in broiler chicken is lower than the tolerable level, he said while disclosing findings of a research conducted by Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council.Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, chief scientific officer (livestock division) of BARC, led the research.

The BARC ran tests on 315 samples of 1,200 broiler chickens from across the country – including and feed to find presence of 10 antibiotics and three heavy metals. The BARC found the presence of two antibiotics, oxytetracycline and doxycycline, and three leads — arsenic, chromium and lead — in the broiler chicken’s meat, which is much below the maximum tolerable level. The level of antibiotics and lead in bones, liver and kidney was also found lower than the tolerable level.