Dutch Find Higher Levels of Dioxin in Pig Farm - ANP
AMSTERDAM - The Dutch food and safety authority (VWA) has found above-normal levels of cancer-causing dioxin in pigs at one of the farms sealed off as a precaution after a feed-scare, Dutch news agency ANP reported on Monday.ANP said that after preliminary tests on pig meat, the VWA had found in three cases a reading of 1.3 and 1.5 picograms of dioxin per gram of fat, above a recommended level of 1.0.
Some 650 farms, including a handful raising chickens, were quarantined in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany after news first broke last week of dioxin contamination in animal feed.
The VWA said 143 Dutch farms were still quarantined. Produce from the affected farms cannot be sold or transported while the order remains in effect.
Authorities in the three countries keep testing levels of the carcinogen dioxin in meat and feed. Dutch and Belgian food officials have said that meat from contaminated farms was sold in shops in the last two months but they ruled out any serious risk to public health, although conclusive meat tests results are not yet out.
They said one would have to eat dioxin contaminated meat several times a day for a very long period to feel any impact, which they said was not the case in the two countries.
Source: Planet Ark
8 February 2006
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