Poultry farms inject chicks with gentamicin; consumers then ingest gentamicin with chicken liver, gizzards and meat, which damages kidneys and hearing.

Original statement

المزارع الفراخ اللي ما بتعرفش ربنا بيحقن الفرخه وهي صغننه كده حقنه جينتامايس

verbatim according to source. Translation by the project; the Arabic wording is authoritative.

Translation

Poultry farms inject chicks with gentamicin; consumers then ingest gentamicin with chicken liver, gizzards and meat, which damages kidneys and hearing.

Origin

Source status

Video transcript (own words)

Attribution

Elawady (machine transcript)

Video

Dr Diaa Al Awady د ضياء العوضي is live! الموت المفاجيء (Open source)

Published

14 July 2025

Timestamp

0:26:27 (location in the original video’s automatic YouTube caption track; confirms where the words occur, not who speaks)

Attribution uncertainty

Elawady relays what a patient who owns a poultry farm told him; machine transcript.

Claimed mechanism

Aminoglycoside residues cause nephro- and ototoxicity in consumers.

Claimed health effect

Kidney damage, hearing loss.

Population concerned

Consumers of chicken (Egypt)

Geographic restriction by Elawady

Refers to farms 'that do not fear God' (some farms), apparently in Egypt.

Diverging source versions

Scientific assessment

Potentially false – The available evidence tends to speak against the statement, but is not conclusive.

Certainty of evidence: very low – Any assessment is very uncertain.

1. What was claimed?

Gentamicin injections in chicks lead to toxic residues in chicken.

2. What is demonstrably correct?

Antibiotic misuse and residues in Egyptian broilers are documented for other antibiotics: enrofloxacin, oxytetracycline and sulfadimidine residues in 52%, 72% and 17% of retail samples, many above MRLs, highest in liver (I-RES-08). That study did not analyse gentamicin.

3. What is wrong or exaggerated?

Kidney and ear damage from gentamicin is known from therapeutic injections; no evidence was found that residue levels in food cause such effects. Even for the antibiotics found above MRLs in Egyptian chicken, hazard quotients were far below 1 (I-RES-08).

4. What remains unclear?

Whether and how often day-old chicks are injected with gentamicin in Egypt; residue levels at slaughter after a 30-45 day growth period.

5. Which studies support it?

None for gentamicin. I-RES-08 shows only that residue problems exist for other antibiotics in Egyptian chicken (gentamicin not analysed; no kidney or hearing outcomes).

6. Which studies contradict it?

Indirect: I-RES-08 (hazard quotients far below 1 for the antibiotics measured).

7. What applies to Germany and Europe?

Residue limits and monitoring apply (I-RES-01, I-RES-07).

8. What is known about Egypt?

Monitoring and withdrawal-period enforcement needed (I-RES-08).

9. What practical conclusion is appropriate?

Antibiotic residues in Egyptian poultry are a real regulatory concern, but the claimed kidney/ear damage in consumers is not supported.

Assessment details

Rationale for certainty of evidence

No verified data were found on gentamicin use in Egyptian hatcheries or on gentamicin residues in Egyptian chicken. The toxicity claim transfers effects of therapeutic doses (injected, high) to food residues (oral, trace). Aminoglycosides are poorly absorbed from the gut (general pharmacology; no source fetched in this review).

Source quality

Anecdote relayed from one patient.

Regional transferability

Egypt-specific; EU: in the original 2010 Annex of Reg. 37/2010, gentamicin MRLs were listed only for bovine and porcine species (I-RES-01).

Regional scope of the claim

refers to Egypt

Last reviewed

25 October 2026 provisional

In plain language

Dr Elawady says some poultry farms inject chicks with the antibiotic gentamicin and that people then eat it and damage their kidneys and hearing. No data on gentamicin in Egyptian chicken were found. Other antibiotics have been found in Egyptian chicken, sometimes above legal limits, but the estimated intake was far below levels considered harmful. The kidney and hearing damage he describes is known from medical injections, not from food traces.

Studies on this claim

Regional context

Germany / EU

Residue limits and monitoring apply (I-RES-01, I-RES-07).

Egypt

Monitoring and withdrawal-period enforcement needed (I-RES-08).

• Food-safety governance and official controls
• Pesticide residues in fruit and vegetables on the EU/German market (incl. imports from Egypt)
• Pesticide residues in produce sold on the Egyptian domestic market
• Antibiotic (veterinary drug) residues in poultry meat and eggs
• Antimicrobial use in food animals and antibiotic growth promoters
• Hormones in poultry, meat, milk and farmed fish
• Salmonella in laying hens, eggs and broiler chicken
• Dioxins, PCBs and PFAS in eggs and other animal foods
• Aflatoxin M1 in milk and dairy products
• Aflatoxins in groundnuts (peanuts)
• Heavy metals in fish
• Farmed fish (aquaculture): drugs, water source and controls
• Import controls and the meaning of RASFF notifications for Egyptian products

What applies in my country?

General scientific assessment

Potentially false Practice unverified; harm from food residues not supported.

The following areas of food safety are relevant to this statement:

• Pesticides and pesticide residues
• Veterinary medicines and antibiotics
• Hormonal growth promoters
• Contaminants (heavy metals, PFAS, PCBs, dioxins, nitrate)
• Pathogens (Salmonella, Campylobacter, etc.)
• Animal husbandry and feed
• Controls, imports, recalls, labelling

Eggs · Poultry · Dairy · Fish and seafood · Red meat · Fruit and vegetables

Limits: legal rules describe what is allowed, not what every single food contains. Measurement data come from samples and are meaningful only together with their method details.

Country of residence or purchase Compare with another country

References

1. Commission Regulation (EU) No 37/2010 of 22 December 2009 on pharmacologically active substances and their classification regarding maximum residue limits in foodstuffs of animal origin. European Commission. Official Journal of the EU 2010
2. Health risk assessment of enrofloxacin, oxytetracycline, and sulfadimidine residues in broiler chicken carcasses marketed in Mit Ghamr, Egypt.. Noah SM et al.. Sci Rep 2026 · PMID 42527435 · DOI 10.1038/s41598-026-63227-2