Quarantine Lifted on Dutch Farms after Dioxin Scare
THE NETHERLANDS - The Dutch food safety authority VWA said in a statement late Friday it had lifted the quarantine orders on a remaining 127 Dutch farms closed after dioxin was found in animal feed last month.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.
Source: Planet Ark
13 February 2006
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