Quarantine Lifted on Dutch Farms after Dioxin Scare
Date: 13-Feb-06
Country: NETHERLANDS
VWA said latest test results did not shown any abnormally high levels of dioxin in pigs and there was therefore no need to continue the quarantine measures, which at one stage affected 275 farms.
Earlier this week the VWA said it would kill and destroy about 3,500 pigs weighing more than 50 kg (110.2 lb) from the 10 farms where the highest contamination was found.
For pigs weighing less than 50 kg, a risk analysis has shown that the level of dioxin in the meat will be below the legal maximum once the pigs reach the 110-kg weight at which they are slaughtered for meat, the VWA said.
This latest in a series of dioxin contamination scares began after toxins were found in Belgian pork fat ingredients used to make animal feed in January.
South Korea banned pork meat from Belgium and the Netherlands, one of the world's top meat exporters, some two weeks ago when news about the dioxin contamination first broke.
Contaminated feed has triggered several west European food scares such as the discovery of dioxin in Dutch potato animal feed in 2004, an illegal hormone in Dutch pigs in 2002 and a 1999 Belgian scandal of dioxin in chickens.